Breyer to be a guest on radio humor show

Justice Stephen Breyer, in a first for the Supreme Court, plans to follow in the footsteps of John McCain, Barack Obama, Weird Al Yancovic, Elmo and many other notables.

The justice will be a guest on NPR's "Wait Wait ... Don't Tell Me," the radio network's humorous weekly news quiz show.

He will, unsurprisingly, be the first justice to appear on the program, host Peter Sagal said. "We're immediately starting at the very top. Well, pretty close," Sagal said in a telephone interview.

Breyer will participate via telephone on March 15 in the program's "Not My Job" segment in which celebrities attempt to answer three extremely obscure questions.

For instance, Illinois Sen. Obama was quizzed on baseball Hall of Famer Wade Bogg's many superstitions. Yancovic, who produces rock music parodies, faced questions about entertainer Pia Zadora.

The program will air the weekend of March 17.

Sagal, who was prepping for an appearance by White House spokesman Tony Snow, said he has not settled on Breyer's three questions. But the host said he is curious about how the justices get along, among other things.

"How do you decide what to order for lunch when having a working lunch at the Supreme Court? Does the chief justice say, 'Let's see, there are four votes for Chinese food?" Sagal said.

Breyer, apparently a fan of radio quiz shows during his youth, was volunteered for the program by his brother, Charles, also a federal judge.

Sagal said Breyer talked to longtime NPR Supreme Court reporter Nina Totenberg before he accepted.

Still, on a program noted for its irreverence, might Breyer be in for a reception that is slightly less decorous than the norm for a Supreme Court justice?

Probably, Sagal acknowledged.

He recounted a recent visit from the commander of a naval battle group.

"We didn't treat him any better," Sagal said.

___

When the court hears arguments next month in an important test of student free speech rights, the Alaska man at the center of the case will be halfway around the world.

Joseph Frederick is teaching high school English and studying Mandarin in China. He will not say exactly where, the better to protect his solitude.

Five years ago, as a high school senior in Juneau, he was suspended after he and some friends unfurled a "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" banner at a rally to mark the visit of the Olympic torch on its way to Salt Lake City.

Frederick was across the street from the school at the time and said he was conducting an experiment on the First Amendment, not advocating either for religion or drug use.

"What the banner said was, 'Look here, I have the right to free speech and I'm asserting it,'" Frederick said in a telephone call with reporters that was organized by the American Civil Liberties Union.

The high school principal, Deborah Morse, disagreed, viewing the banner as an unacceptable, if nonsensical, endorsement of drug use.

Frederick sued and after a trial judge sided with Morse, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the student's First Amendment speech rights had been violated.

Encouraged by former independent counsel Kenneth Starr, who is representing the Juneau school district, the Supreme Court agreed to hear the case.

Frederick said his schoolmates mostly did not care one way or another about his banner at the time.

But he said a teacher told him of one benefit from the legal dust-up that followed.

According to the teacher, the case became "a nice tool in getting students interested in the Bill of Rights," Frederick said.

___

On the Net:

"Wait Wait ... Don't Tell Me": http://www.npr.org/programs/waitwait/