The facts
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected an appeal from a Michigan mother who challenged her sons being told to remove 'Let's Go Brandon' sweatshirts in 2022. The mother contended that the school district violated her sons' First Amendment rights. A federal appeals court had previously upheld the ban, ruling that the phrase's coded vulgarity could be restricted in a school setting. Lawyers for the mother argued that this decision grants school officials broad authority to suppress political speech based on their subjective interpretations of what constitutes vulgarity. The school district maintained that messages with lewd implications are inappropriate for the school environment. AP also reported that students were observed wearing clothing supporting Donald Trump.
Our take
The Supreme Court just told a Michigan mother and her sons to eat shit rather than wear a sweatshirt that says Let's Go Brandon. Their First Amendment beef got tossed without a hearing so the school district's ban stands exactly as the lower court left it. That lower court bought the school's line that the phrase carries coded vulgarity and therefore can be yanked off kids in the building. The district claims messages with lewd implications have no place in the educational environment. Translation they get to decide what counts as too dirty based on whatever subjective bullshit pops into their heads. Lawyers for the mother pointed out the obvious danger. This hands school officials wide open power to squash any political speech they personally find offensive. One day it is a Brandon sweatshirt the next day it could be anything else that makes an administrator's delicate ass twitch. Meanwhile the same district apparently had zero problem with students rocking Donald Trump clothing. So political speech is fine when it flatters the right guy but the second it flips the bird in code the censorship hammer drops. The contradiction sits right there in the record and the Supreme Court shrugged. The whole episode reveals a bunch of petty administrators who cannot handle the fact that a popular chant means fuck Joe Biden. These are the same people who would lose their minds if a student showed up in something that mocked their own sacred cows. Selective enforcement dressed up as protecting children from lewdness is pure cowardice. The Supreme Court just green lit it. Michigan school officials get to keep playing vulgarity police while pretending their rule book is neutral. The kids who wanted to wear the sweatshirt lose and the rest of us get to watch another round of adults pretending coded words are more dangerous than open hypocrisy.
