Young America’s Foundation has partnered with Dhillon Law Group and Hamilton Lincoln Law Institute to file a friend of the court (amicus curiae) brief in B.A. v. Tri County Areas Schools, an important case for free speech in public schools.
When two Michigan middle schoolers wore sweatshirts that read “Let’s Go Brandon” to school, administrators launched a campaign of punishment and suppression against them. Under the guise of banning “profanity” (a reference to the double-meaning of the meme-like phrase), the principal gave the boys an ultimatum: either remove the shirts or leave class.
The students sued, but, unfortunately, the district court erroneously upheld the school’s suppression. YAF is asking the Sixth Circuit to correct this error and uphold the free speech rights of public schoolers across America to express their views on government and politics, subject to legitimate, viewpoint-neutral rules necessary to protect the school’s functioning.
Students do not “shed their constitutional rights…at the schoolhouse gate.” Indeed, political speech, like speech criticizing the president of the United States, is purely political and is entitled to the greatest protection available under the Constitution.
YAF members engaged in campus activism commonly face similar pushback from school officials who label their speech as “political” or otherwise problematic. The students in this case, like YAF members, have chosen to stand against the suppression, and YAF is proud to stand with them.
YAF is optimistic that Free Speech will prevail against this blatant, antidemocratic suppression.
Read YAF’s amicus curiae brief here.
