JUNEAU, Alaska — As the Olympic torch relay passed by Juneau-Douglas High School in 2002, then-high school senior Joseph Frederick was looking to catch the attention of television cameras covering the event.

So he held up a banner that read "Bong Hits 4 Jesus."

Frederick's message also caught the eye of the high school principal, and it earned him a 10-day suspension. School district officials said his banner violated the school's anti-drug policies.

Frederick, then 18, sued the school but lost in federal district court.

On March 10, however, a unanimous three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the lower court ruling and said school officials had violated Frederick's free-speech rights.

Frederick's attorney, Doug Mertz, called the ruling in Frederick v. Morse a significant victory for the First Amendment, and one that fulfills his client's main objectives.

"The main thing was to establish a legal precedent and to prevent the school district from doing this again to another student," said Mertz, a private attorney representing Frederick on behalf of the American Civil Liberties Union of Alaska.

Frederick, currently a student at the University of Idaho, told the Juneau Empire for a story posted yesterday, "With the Patriot Act and everything, we need any cases we can get (supporting) basic rights."

Juneau school district officials expressed disappointment in the court ruling.

Superintendent Peggy Cowan said the school had a duty to respond to the banner or risk sending a message that the school condoned illegal drug use.

"My concern is that (the court's ruling) could compromise our ability to send a consistent message against the use of illegal drugs," she said.

On Jan. 24, 2002, the day of the torch relay, Frederick was standing across the street from the school with other students who'd been let out of class for the event. Then-Principal Deb Morse spotted his sign, crossed the street and told him to take it down. When he asked her about his freedom of speech, she said the message violated school policy against material that advertises or promotes the use of illegal drugs.

Morse grabbed the banner from him, crumpled it up and suspended him, according to the lawsuit. Frederick said when he protested she upped his suspension.

Frederick unsuccessfully appealed his suspension to the school board. Though it was later shortened by the school superintendent, Frederick sued the school board and principal in federal court.

In 2003, U.S. District Judge John W. Sedwick ruled that students watching the torch relay were in a school-sponsored event. As such, school officials had wider discretion to control Frederick's actions and were entitled to regulate speech that encouraged drug use, he said.

Sedwick said school officials could reasonably perceive the banner as advocating drug use, thus violating the school's drug prevention policies.

But the 9th Circuit said even if the banner "however vague and nonsensical" could be construed as a positive message about marijuana use, the question came down to whether a school may punish or censor a student's speech because it promotes a social message contrary to one the school favors.

"The answer under controlling, long-existing precedent is plainly "No," wrote Judge Andrew Kleinfeld in an 18-page opinion.

The court cited "the bedrock principle" of Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School Dist., a 1969 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that said students do not "shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate."

Though the courts give high school students less leeway than adults when it comes to certain offensive speech, such as sexually suggestive comments, Kleinfeld wrote that "'Bong Hits 4 Jesus' may be funny, stupid, or insulting, depending on one's point of view," but it was not "plainly offensive" in the manner of sexual innuendo.

The appeals court also noted that Frederick's off-campus message did not disrupt school functions and was not part of an official school activity.

In his lawsuit, Frederick asked that the suspension be removed from his school records and sought to stop the district from taking the same type of action again. He also asked for unspecified monetary damages.

While the lower court had ruled that Morse was immune from monetary damages in the case, the appeals panel said the former school principal could be held liable because she freely admitted to being aware of the pertinent case law regarding student rights. The 9th Circuit said the law was clear and Morse was aware of it when she punished Frederick.

Cowan said because Morse was acting on behalf of the school, the district would cover her damages.

The case has been remanded to the district court.

Cowan said the Juneau school board would decide whether to appeal.