Ruling protecting online speech survives WASHINGTON, Jan. 17 (UPI) -- The U.S. Supreme Court Tuesday left in place a lower-court ruling saying students are protected by the First Amendment when attacking school officials online. The case involved a Pennsylvania eighth-grader who, away from school property, used her MySpace Web site to lampoon her principal online as a sex pervert, with liberal use of the "F bomb." When J.S. was suspended from school for 10 days, her family sued in federal court. Eventually, the entire U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, headquartered in Philadelphia, ruled 8-6 that the school district violated J.S.'s First Amendment free speech rights when it suspended her for creating the profile. The case of the eighth-grader drew the attention of the National School Boards Association and other educational groups, who urged the U.S. Supreme Court to hear the dispute given its importance and "the explosion of social networking." The high court's refusal to hear the case sets no precedent, and doesn't prevent the justices from reviewing the issue in a future case.