Middle-Schoolers' "Let's Go Brandon" Sweatshirt Case Goes To Supreme Court
by Dave Huber via The College Fix,
Lower courts have ruled school can ban wearing such apparel as ‘can reasonably be interpreted as
The lower courts got this one backwards, and I'm not interested in the partisan framing masking what's actually happening here: government entities suppressing student political speech because adults find it annoying. Let's be clear on the mechanics. "Let's Go Brandon" is crude, sure—it's a euphemism for "F*** Joe Biden." But crudeness isn't the real trigger. Schools ban anti-Biden messaging while tolerating anti-Trump apparel constantly. The receipts matter: show me the suspensions for Trump posters. You won't find them in equal measure. The Tinker standard exists for a reason—schools can only restrict speech causing *material* disruption. One sweatshirt doesn't meet that threshold, no matter how much administrators clutch pearls. Courts inventing new exceptions for "distraction" essentially let government officials veto any message they personally dislike. This isn't about protecting schoolchildren. It's about government employees using institutional power to silence dissent from minors. The Supreme Court should recognize what's actually on trial: whether public schools can become political monocultures. That's the real story here.
What the Documents Show
Last October, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld that ruling in a 2-1 decision, confirming the case was about “the vulgarity exception.” Referencing the landmark Tinker free speech case, Judge John Nalbandian (a Trump appointee) wrote “The Constitution doesn’t hamstring school administrators when they are trying to limit profanity and vulgarity in the classroom during school hours [… they’re not] powerless to prevent student speech that the administrators reasonably understand to be profane or vulgar.” (Ironically, the brothers’ principal, Joseph Williams, had said he “was not aware that the school had experienced any disruption from students wearing ‘Let’s Go Brandon’” sweatshirts.) FIRE’s petition to the SCOTUS notes the previous rulings allow individual teachers and administrators to “create and enforce their own test for ‘vulgarity’ [–] a political shirt could have First Amendment protection in second-period algebra but not third-period biology.” “Let’s Go Brandon” is no different than using words “heck” or “shoot” in place of their obvious profane counterparts. FIRE Supervising Senior Attorney Conor Fitzpatrick said “The school district’s censorship assumes that students cannot handle seeing even sanitized expressions. But America’s next generation is not so fragile, and the First Amendment is not so brittle.” Make sure to read our "How To [Read/Tip Off] Zero Hedge Without Attracting The Interest Of [Human Resources/The Treasury/Black Helicopters]" Guide It would be very wise of you to study our privacy and our (non)policy on conflicts / full disclosure . Here's our Cookie Policy .
Primary Sources
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