Unconstitutionally Overbroad New Jersey Anti-Bullying Law Challenged; Reference To “Head Lice” Deemed “Bullying”

by Hans Bader on April 11, 2014

New Jersey’s anti-bullying law, which applies to the state’s schools and universities, is so overly broad that a fourth-grader was punished just for noting, in response to a question, that a classmate had suffered from head lice. A civil-liberties group called the Rutherford Institute is now representing that student in a First Amendment challenge to the law, notes the Newark Star-Ledger in an article titled, “Civil liberties organization asks federal court to declare NJ’s anti-bullying law unconstitutional.” Another civil-liberties group, FIRE, has also concluded that the law violates the First Amendment.

The Rutherford Institute explains:......Under the logic of that disturbing ruling in V.B. v. Flemington-Raritan, college students could be sued for constitutionally-protected speech, merely because thin-skinned classmates claim to be “bullied” or “harassed” by their criticism. As we noted earlier, the term “bullying” is increasingly being used as an excuse for censorship of speech protected by the First Amendment, such as anti-abortion advocacy, publicly revealing the names of students who vandalized a pro-life exhibit, student newspaper editorials criticizing gay marriage, and criticism of shoddy academic research on subjects like the history of firearms......To Read More....