WASHINGTON – A high school student’s “Bong Hits 4 Jesus” banner got slapped down by the Supreme Court in a decision Monday restricting student speech rights when the message seems to advocate illegal drug use.

The court ruled 5-4 in the case of Joseph Frederick, who unfurled his handiwork at a school-sanctioned event in 2002, triggering his suspension and leading to the court battle.

“The message on Frederick’s banner is cryptic,” Chief Justice John Roberts said. But the school principal “thought the banner would be interpreted by those viewing it as promoting illegal drug use, and that interpretation is plainly a reasonable one,” Robert said in the majority opinion.

In a concurrence, Justices Samuel Alito and Anthony Kennedy said the court’s opinion “goes no further” than speech interpreted as dealing with illegal drug use.

“It provides no support” for any restriction that goes to political or social issues, Alito and Kennedy added.

In dissent, Justice John Paul Stevens said the ruling “does serious violence to the First Amendment.”

Frederick said his banner was a nonsensical message he first saw on a snowboard. He intended it to proclaim his right to say anything at all.

Frederick displayed it as the Olympic torch made its way through Juneau, Alaska, en route to the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City.

School principal Deborah Morse said the phrase was a pro-drug message. Frederick denied that he was advocating for drug use and brought a federal civil rights lawsuit.

In their concurrence, Alito and Kennedy said the decision “goes no further than to hold that a public school may restrict speech that a reasonable observer would interpret as advocating illegal drug use.”

Nor does it address political or social issues such as the wisdom of the war on drugs or of legalizing marijuana for medicinal use, Alito and Kennedy said, embracing language from Stevens’ strong dissent.

Stevens said the First Amendment protects student speech if the message itself neither violates a permissible rule nor expressly advocates conduct that is illegal and harmful to students.

“This nonsense banner does neither,” Stevens said.

Kris Krane, executive director of the Students for Sensible Drug Policy, called it “sad” that the court thinks there should be a drug exception to the First Amendment.

The case is Morse v. Frederick, 06-278.