Justice Thomas in Morse

Justice Thomas believes that "the history of public education suggests that the First Amendment, as originally understood, does not protect student speech in public schools." Basically, his position is that parents have delegated their power to discipline their children to public schools, and thus the Free Speech Clause has no more application in government schools than it does in our homes and family lives.

Are you persuaded by this argument? Is it good originalism? Might an originalist take the position that the text of the Free Speech Clause, as applied to the states as a fundamental individual liberty, suggests that a democractic republic depends upon citizens (including young citizens-in-training) who are willing to speak out and debate contoversial issues including issues like war, drug policy, abortion and the moral good of human sexuality?

Take a look at p.12 of Thomas's opinion:

"Once a society that generally respected the authority of teachers, deferred to their judgment, and trusted them to act in the best interest of school children, we now accept defiance, disrespect, and disorder as daily occurrences in many of our public schools."

Perhaps in a homogenous society with a common understanding of the good life this might be true. But one of the costs of diversity--particularly of ideological (worldview) diversity--is it is no longer possible to trust that our children will be taught the good life as we understand it in public schools. As Alito and Kennedy say (p. 3), public school authorities are agents of the state and our children are made a captive audience for the often controversial (and certainly not "common") values of those who wield political power in the public school system. Parents do not choose public education--"realistically, [parents] have no choice but to send their children to a public school and little ability to influence what occurs in the school." Often, when students are disciplined for speech in the schools, the speech is nothing more than an attempt to make a counterargument against the official worldview expressed by school authorities or by favored groups of students (e.g. Poway).

What are your thoughts?