Thursday, April 13, 2006

Judge rules correctly but does this belong in court?

Channel 4 KRNV.com: Local News and Weather for Reno-Tahoe Region: Judge says student can recite poem at state competition:
"... US District Judge Brian Sandoval said 'hell' and 'damn' in W.H. Auden's, 'The More Loving One,' does not constitute vulgar, lewd or offensive language that could disrupt the Coral Academy of Science's educational priorities."

The offending material consists of a reference to the stars not giving a damn about the author and those stars not caring if he went to hell. Pretty tame stuff compared to the lyrics of a lot of songs kids in middle schools listen to.

I don't particularly like the poet's point of view in this piece, but The More Loving One strikes me as a rather good poem in a technical sense and not the place I would have chosen to draw a line in the sand were I the head of that school.

So far, so good - a victory for free speech.

But when did federal judges become literary critics?

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