Derrick Lowery, Jacob Giles, Joseph Dooley, and Dillon Spurlock were all varsity football players at Jefferson County High School. Discontented with their coach and his methods, the students began to circulate a petition among the football team members to try to have the coach removed from his position. When the coach found out about the petition, he began questioning the players individually. Giles, Dooley, and Lowery refused the individual interviews and said they would talk to the coach together. The coach said that if they would not talk to him alone, they could "take their stuff and leave.
"On the way out, Dooley announced to the team, "I know how much you hate him, and you guys need to leave with us right now."Spurlock, who was not there for the original interview, was subsequently interviewed, at which time he told the coach he did not want to play for him and was then told to leave. The four players sued in district court, challenging their removal from the team as being a violation of their First Amendment right to free speech.
How should the court have ruled? What legal precedents discussed in this case are likely to be relevant to this opinion? Why? Lowery et al. v. Marty Euverard, Dale Schneitman, Craig Kisabeth, Jefferson County Board of Education, 497 F.3d 584 (6th Cir. 2007).