A cheerleader was punished for cursing on Snapchat. Now the Supreme Court will decide if her school went too far in a landmark free speech ruling.

• Brandi Levy is suing Pennsylvania's Mahanoy Area School District, saying her right to free speech was violated.
• Levy was suspended by the cheerleading team after posting a Snapchat about not making the varsity team.
• "F--- school, f--- softball, f--- cheer, f--- everything," she wrote.

The Supreme Court this week will hear oral arguments in a case involving a former high school cheerleader punished for a profane rant on Snapchat - and it could lead to a landmark ruling on the limits of free speech.

Brandi Levy was a 14-year-old ninth-grader when she missed out on making the varsity cheerleading team at Pennsylvania's Mahanoy Area High School in 2017.

In an angry rant, she posted a photo on Snapchat, showing her and a friend with upraised middle fingers and the caption, "F--- school, f--- softball, f--- cheer, f--- everything," according to the American Civil Liberties Union.

The image was sent to 250 friends before it was automatically deleted 24 hours later. But one person took a screenshot of the Snapchat and showed it to a daughter of one of the cheerleading coaches.

In reaction, the coaches suspected Levy from the team for a year, saying her Snapchat violated a team rule of avoiding "foul language and inappropriate gestures" and "any negative information regarding cheerleading, cheerleaders, or coaches placed on the Internet," according to The Washington Post.

Levy has said the Snapchat post was taken off-campus at a convenience store. She and her parents sued the school district with the backing of the ACLU, accusing school officials of violating her First Amendment right to free speech.

A district judge agreed that the suspension violated the First Amendment and ordered that Levy be reinstated to the cheerleading team - she was on the junior varsity team sophomore year, and was on the varsity squad junior and senior years.

In total, judges have ruled in favor of Levy in two lower federal courts and an appeals court.

But the Supreme Court will hear arguments in the appeal from the Mahanoy Area School District on Wednesday.

Under a 1969 Supreme Court decision, public schools can punish students for speech that could "substantially disrupt" the school community, but the precedent does not apply to off-campus speech. The Supreme Court's ruling could impact that precedent.

"I feel like students should be protected and be able to express themselves without getting any form of punishment for it from the school," Levy, now an 18-year-old college student, told Reuters. "It'll set an example for everyone that it's okay for people to express their feelings out of school."

Witold "Vic" Walczak, legal director of the ACLU of Pennsylvania, said in a statement to Insider that policing students’ speech outside school could have “chilling effects on free speech.”

“Young people need to have some place in their lives where they have full free speech rights to blow off steam or express their views on politics, religion, or other social issues without worrying their schools will be monitoring everything they say, 24/7,” Walczak, said. “Young people have a constitutional right to express themselves.”

The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear the case Wednesday, Mahanoy Area School District v. B.L., and make a ruling this summer.