Hearing is scheduled for Thursday, May 27th
9:00 a.m.

SAN FRANCISCO – The California Supreme Court is scheduled to hear argument in a case that has mobilized renowned poets, novelists and other literary artists who have come to the defense of a high school student’s right to freedom of artistic expression. Nobel Prize winner J.M. Coetzee, Pulitzer Prize winner Michael Chabon, and Virginia’s former Poet Laureate George Garrett, are among the writers that joined with the First Amendment Project, the ACLU of Northern California, PEN USA and other groups in filing a friend-of-the-court brief, urging that a teenager’s dark poetry was protected speech, not a criminal threat.

The case involves “George T,” a San Jose High school student, who was convicted of violating the state’s criminal threats statute after writing and circulating a poem that explored “dark themes,” including the Columbine High School massacre. The poem, titled “Faces,” was shared with two other students, one of whom then told her English teacher that she’d been frightened by the poem. George was sentenced to 100 days in juvenile hall.

In the brief, the literary artists and organizations argue that George’s poem was simply that—a poem, not a threat. They contend, “that creative works such as a poem or painting can not, on their face, constitute a true threat. Only the circumstances surrounding the communication of a poem or other creative work can transform it from protected expression into an unprotected true threat.” The circumstances under which George shared his poem with others did not transform it from a poem into a threat.

“At the heart of this case is the First Amendment right of any young person to explore the whole range of his emotions and experiences, and write about disturbing subject matter without fear that he will be punished should his work be misinterpreted,” said Ann Brick, attorney with the ACLU of Northern California.

To illustrate that poetry and prose, which explore the darker side of humanity, is a recurring theme in literature that is entitled to the highest level of First Amendment protection, the brief cites William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Robert Louis Stevenson’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and Eminem’s recording of “Criminal.”

David Greene of the First Amendment Project added: "Poetry is an experiment in persona for both the writer and the reader. It compels one to explore emotions and situations, which may be whimsical or exhilarating, or dark and hopeless. We are not saying that creative expression can never be a true threat. But it will rarely be the
intentional, unequivocal and unambiguous message that the First Amendment
requires before it can be criminalized."

The National Coalition Against Censorship, the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund, The Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression, Feminists for Free Expression and PEN American Center joined in the brief.