Island Trees School District v. Pico

Board of Education v. Pico
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued March 2, 1982 Decided June 25, 1982
Full case name	Board of Education, Island Trees Union Free School District No. 26, et al. v. Pico, by his next friend Pico, et al.
Citations	457 U.S. 853 (more) 102 S. Ct. 2799; 73 L. Ed. 2d 435; 1982 U.S. LEXIS 8; 8 Media L. Rep. 1721
Case history
Prior	Pico v. Bd. of Educ. Island Trees Union Free Sch. Dist. 26, 474 F. Supp. 387 (E.D.N.Y. 1979); reversed, 638 F.2d 404 (2d Cir. 1980); cert. granted, 454 U.S. 891 (1981).
Holding
The First Amendment limits the power of local school boards to remove library books from junior high schools and high schools.
Court membership
Chief Justice Warren E. Burger Associate Justices William J. Brennan Jr. · Byron White Thurgood Marshall · Harry Blackmun Lewis F. Powell Jr. · William Rehnquist John P. Stevens · Sandra Day O'Connor
Case opinions
Plurality	Brennan, joined by Marshall, Stevens; Blackmun (all but parts II-A(1))
Concurrence	Blackmun (in part)
Concurrence	White (in judgment)
Dissent	Burger, joined by Powell, Rehnquist, O'Connor
Dissent	Powell
Dissent	Rehnquist, joined by Burger, Powell
Dissent	O'Connor
Laws applied
U.S. Const. amend. I

Board of Education, Island Trees Union Free School District No. 26 v. Pico, 457 U.S. 853 (1982), was a landmark case in which the United States Supreme Court split on the First Amendment issue of local school boards removing library books from junior high schools and high schools. Four Justices ruled that it was unconstitutional, four Justices concluded the contrary (with perhaps a few minor exceptions), and one Justice concluded that the court need not decide the question on the merits.^[1] Pico was the first Supreme Court case to consider the right to receive information in a library setting under the First Amendment, but the court's fractured plurality decision left the scope of this right unclear.^[2]