Staff Reports
The Supreme Court quietly declined to take up a case this week about two Michigan middle school boys who were told to strip off “Let’s Go Brandon” sweatshirts. That means a lower court’s ruling stands — the Sixth Circuit said schools can treat the slogan as vulgar speech and bar it, even though it targets President Biden. For anyone who thinks political speech gets a pass at school, that hope just got clipped.
Why the Supreme Court’s silence matters for free speech
The Sixth Circuit opinion said, in plain language, “In the schoolhouse, vulgarity trumps politics.” That ruling came from Judge John Nalbandian and leaves teachers and principals with a playbook: if they don’t like what you’re saying, call it “vulgar” and toss it. The students were represented by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, which argued the sweatshirt was core political speech. A dissenting judge warned this gives schools a dangerous tool to censor viewpoints they dislike. The problem is obvious — labeling political words as “vulgar” is a fast track to one-sided censorship.
Dress codes shouldn’t be a backdoor for political censorship
School officials insist this was just enforcement of a dress code, not politics. That’s a neat legal trick, but it smells like selective enforcement. If a school can ban “Let’s Go Brandon” as vulgar, what’s to stop it from banning a pro-life shirt or a pro-school-choice slogan the next week? We’ve already seen the Court pass on similar cases, so the message to administrators is clear: push the envelope and let lower courts set the rules. Meanwhile, students learn that political speech gets fewer protections than ever inside the schoolhouse.
Conservative families should pay attention — and act
This isn’t just about one slogan or two boys in Michigan. It’s about whether schools will remain neutral spaces where ideas can be expressed. Conservatives especially should notice when the court system shrugs and lets government-run places pick winners and losers in political debate. If the highest court won’t step in, the next line of defense is local: parents, school boards, and state legislatures must push back and demand clear rules that protect all political speech, not just the views favored by administrators.
At the end of the day, calling “Let’s Go Brandon” vulgar is a shortcut for shutting down speech someone dislikes. The Supreme Court’s refusal to hear the case left the lower court’s answer in place, and that answer lets schools police politics under the guise of manners. If we don’t object now, the next time a principal draws a line, it might be your kid standing on the wrong side of it. That’s the real lesson here — free speech in the schoolyard is only safe as long as someone fights for it.
