On June 13, 2011, the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit handed down its opinion  in the case of J.S. v. Blue Mountain School District.  The en banc court held, inter alia, that suspending student J.S. for creating a MySpace profile mocking her middle school principal violated J.S.’s First Amendment free speech rights.  In a concurring opinion, Judge Smith addresses “a question that the majority opinion expressly leaves open: whether Tinker applies to off-campus speech in the first place.”  Opining that “[a]pplying Tinker to off-campus speech would create a precedent with ominous implications,” Judge Smith cites to Professor Lee Goldman’s April 2011 Florida Law Review article titled “Student Speech and the First Amendment: A Comprehensive Approach.” In his article, Professor Goldman argues that Tinker should not be applied to students’ off-campus speech.  Click here for the full Third Circuit opinion.