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Palm Beach School Free Speech Case Goes To Supreme Court

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WEST PALM BEACH (CBSMiami/NSF) - The U.S. Supreme Court could consider a challenge to a decision by Palm Beach County schools to remove school banners for a tutoring service run by a former porn star.

Attorneys for David Mech filed a petition last month asking the Supreme Court to hear the case, which focuses on free-speech issues. The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in November upheld the decision to remove the banners.

The case stemmed from a program in which schools hung banners on their fences to recognize sponsors of programs. Three schools displayed banners for Happy/Fun Math Tutor, operated by Mech, who has taught math at Palm Beach State College and is certified to teach secondary-school math in Florida.

But in 2013, the schools removed the banners after parents complained about the common ownership of the tutoring service and a company that had produced pornography.

Mech is a former porn star.

The petition filed last month asked the Supreme Court to hear the case and overturn the appeals-court decision.

"The 11th Circuit's decision, if left standing, would allow the government to strip private speech of all First Amendment protection merely by adding a pro forma, ambiguous statement of approval," said the petition. "If allowed to stand, the decision threatens to undermine well-established constitutional jurisprudence in the free speech realm, by allowing the School Board to rubber stamp traditionally private speech and thereby strip protected expression of fundamental First Amendment safeguards."

The Supreme Court last week gave the school district until July 20 to file a response.

The News Service of Florida contributed to this report.

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