SPEECH
Supreme Court rejects classroom speech case involving students wearing "Let's Go Brandon" sweatshirts
The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear a Michigan family’s challenge to a middle school’s ban on students wearing “Let’s Go Brandon” sweatshirts, leaving in place a ruling that schools may restrict the phrase as vulgar.
The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear a Michigan family’s challenge to a middle school’s ban on students wearing “Let’s Go Brandon” sweatshirts, leaving in place a ruling that schools may restrict the phrase as vulgar.
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What This is
- The Supreme Court refused to hear the students’ appeal, ending the case without a nationwide ruling.
- Two Michigan middle school students were told in 2022 to remove sweatshirts that read “Let’s Go Brandon.”
- The phrase is widely used as a euphemism for an obscene insult aimed at President Joe Biden.
- The students’ mother appealed, saying the school violated her sons’ First Amendment rights by barring the slogan.
- A federal appeals court, the Sixth Circuit, sided with the school district, and that ruling remains in effect.
- The school district said it could bar the phrase because it is widely understood as a lewd, euphemistic insult.
- Lower courts treated the slogan as “vulgarity by innuendo,” which schools may restrict even if it also carries a political message.
Why This Matters
- With the Supreme Court staying out, schools and families may face different speech rules depending on where they live.
- The case sharpens the unresolved line between protected political messages and “coded” insults that schools can treat as vulgar.
- It leaves school administrators broad power to decide what language is age-appropriate, even when students say they are making a political point.