Whether public school teachers and coaches retain any First Amendment rights when at work and in the general presence of' students

QUESTION PRESENTED This Court observed almost 50 years ago that “[i]t can hardly be argued that either students or teachers shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate.” Tinker v. Des Moines Indep. Cmty. Sch. Dist., 393 U.S. 503, 506 (1969) (emphasis added). But in the decision below, the Ninth Circuit not only argued that teachers shed their First Amendment rights at the schoolhouse gate, but made it circuit law. In particular, the court held that any “demonstrative communication” by a public school teacher or coach that occurs “at school or a school function” and “in the general presence of students” is entitled to no First Amendment protection at all. Applying that sweeping categorical rule, the court held that a public high school football coach could be fired for engaging in the most personal of expressive gestures, kneeling at midfield to say a brief, quiet prayer by himself after games, because he undertook this “demonstrative religious activity” in the vicinity of students. The question presented is: Whether public school teachers and coaches retain any First Amendment rights when at work and “in the general presence of” students.