7. Dissent

Island Trees v. Pico ended in a 5 to 4 decision in favor of the students. Justice Brennan announced the judgment of the court and stated his opinion which Justice Marshall, White and Stevens concurred, and they were joined by Blackmun who agreed with all but Part II A-1. Burger, Powell, Rehnquist and O' Connor dissented. O' Connor stated, "If the school board can set the curriculum, select teachers, and determine initially what books to purchase for the school library, it surely can decide which books to discontinue or remove from the school library so long as it does not also interfere with the right of students to read the material and to discuss it...I do not personally agree with the Board's action with respect to some of the books in question here, but it is not the function of the courts to make the decisions that have been properly relegated to the elected members of school boards. It is the school board that must determine educational suitability, and it has done so in this case. I therefore join THE CHIEF JUSTICE's dissent. " (http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/cas/comm/free_speech/pico.html) Justice Rehnquist explained, "I disagree with JUSTICE BRENNAN's opinion because it is largely hypothetical in character, failing to take account of the facts as admitted by the parties pursuant to local rules of the District Court for the Eastern District of New York, and because it is analytically unsound and internally inconsistent...JUSTICE BRENNAN's opinion deals far more sparsely with the procedural posture of this case than it does with the constitutional issues which it conceives to arise under the First Amendment." (http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/cgi-bin/getcase.pl?court=US&vol=457&invol=853)