Posted on 10/20/2025 6:17:13 AM PDT by TigerClaws
A divided federal appeals court has sided with Michigan school administrators who barred students from wearing shirts with the phrase “Let’s Go Brandon!”, which gained traction as a coded message of opposition to then-President Joe Biden.
The 2-1 decision this week by a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit provides some important guidance to educators on when they can prohibit speech promoting a “vulgar message” in schools, even if doesn’t contain actual expletives or is political in nature.
“The Constitution doesn’t hamstring school administrators when they are trying to limit profanity and vulgarity in the classroom during school hours,” said the decision in B.A. v. Tri County Area Schools.
A crowd chant that was misheard or ‘a fig leaf’
The slogan originated at a 2021 NASCAR race in Talladega, Ala., when the crowd chanted “F--- Joe Biden” as the race’s winner, Brandon Brown, was being interviewed on TV, and a host remarked on what she may have thought was being chanted: “Let’s go, Brandon!”
As the 6th Circuit opinion puts it, it is unclear whether the TV host “had misheard the crowd or whether she was simply trying to put a fig leaf over the chant’s vulgarity.”
The slogan went viral on social media and was embraced by many conservative critics of the Democratic president, leading to marketing of T-shirts and banners with the phrase.
In early 2022, two brothers wore their “Let’s Go Brandon!” hoodies on different days to Tri County Middle School in Howard City, Mich.
An assistant principal ordered one of the brothers, an 8th grader identified as D.A., to remove it because the slogan was the equivalent of “the F-word.” The student complied, though he wore it again a few weeks later and again complied with a request to remove it. In May of that year, D.A.’s 6th grade brother, identified as X.A., also wore a “Let’s Go Brandon!” sweatshirt to school and was told to remove it.
School administrators referred to the student dress code, which prohibits any attire “with messages or illustrations that are lewd, indecent, vulgar, or profane, or that advertise any product or service not permitted by law to minors.”
The boys’ mother sued the 1,700-student Tri County Area district north of Grand Rapids and two administrators under the First Amendment’s free speech clause. A federal district court granted summary judgment to the district, ruling that officials had reasonably interpreted “Let’s Go Brandon!” to have a profane meaning and thus could be regulated. Included in the court filing is an image of the sweatshirt in question. One of the students in the lawsuit sports the sweatshirt in question, in a photo included in the court filings.
The 6th Circuit panel, in its divided decision on Oct. 14, also ruled for the school district and administrators.
“Schools are charged with teaching students the fundamental values necessary to the maintenance of a democratic political system,” said Judge John B. Nalbandian, an appointee of President Donald Trump. “And avoiding vulgar and offensive terms in public discourse is one such value.”
The majority held that even phrases lacking explicitly profane words may be interpreted as holding a vulgar meaning. And it held that even core political speech may be regulated in schools if it has a vulgar message.
On the first point, lawyers for the family argued that “Let’s Go Brandon!” was a socially acceptable euphemism for the “F--- Joe Biden” message, just as “heck” is an acceptable substitute for “hell.”
The 6th Circuit majority relied on the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1986 decision in Bethel School District v. Fraser, which upheld the discipline of a student who had delivered a sexual innuendo-filled speech before an assembly. The high court ruling gave schools greater leeway to regulate vulgar, lewd, indecent, or “plainly offensive” student speech.
“Fraser demonstrates that a school may regulate speech that conveys an obscene or vulgar message even when the words used are not themselves obscene or vulgar,” Nalbandian wrote.
In most cases, “federal courts should view a school administrator’s reasonable and good-faith determinations of what is vulgar with some deference,” the judge said. “Doing so ensures that unelected federal judges do not supplant democratically elected school boards as the arbiters of what is or is not appropriate for a student to say while at school.” Dissenting judge relies on landmark Tinker decision
The majority also rejected arguments that the political nature of the “Let’s Go Brandon!” message provided greater First Amendment protection in a school than a non-political vulgarity.
The high court’s Fraser decision “answers this question by holding that vulgarity trumps the political aspect of speech at school,” Nalbandian said.
Chief Justice Warren E. Burger’s majority opinion in Fraser concluded that children in public schools weren’t guaranteed the same right as adults a to use an “offensive form of expression” when making a political point.
Nalbandian said, “In the schoolhouse, vulgarity trumps politics. And the protection for political speech doesn’t give a student carte blanche to use vulgarity at school—even when that vulgarity is cloaked in innuendo or euphemism.”
Writing in a lengthy dissent, Judge John K. Bush said he believed the “Let’s Go Brandon!” shirts passed muster in schools based on the Supreme Court’s landmark 1969 decision in Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District, which upheld students’ right to free speech as long as school was not substantially disrupted. In this photo taken Tuesday, Aug. 27, 2013, Mary Beth Tinker, 61, shows one of her collection of arm bands during an interview with the Associated Press in Washington. Tinker was 13 years old in 1965 when she wore a black armband to school to protest the Vietnam War. School officials suspended her, leading to a lawsuit that went to the U.S. Supreme Court. Mary Beth Tinker, 61, shows one of her collection of arm bands during an interview with the Associated Press in Washington in a photo taken Tuesday, Aug. 27, 2013. Tinker was 13 years old in 1965 when she wore a black armband to school to protest the Vietnam War, ultimately leading to a watershed U.S. Supreme Court case on free speech in schools. A dissent in a recent court case about students' clothing with a political phrase cited the Tinker decision. Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP
Bush, also a Trump appointee, said the message was “purely political speech” akin to the black armbands worn by the Des Moines students to protest the Vietnam War.
He said there was no doubt the shirts’ “euphemistic meaning was offensive to some, particularly those who supported President Biden. But offensive political speech is allowed in school, so long as it does not cause disruption under Tinker.”
Bush cited a long history of sharp language criticizing the nation’s presidents and said, “The liberty to criticize the president is not a freedom that stops at the schoolhouse door.”
“The school here punished these students for expressing a disfavored political viewpoint, not for expressing a vulgarity,” he said. “We cannot—consistent with Tinker—delegate to school officials unfettered discretion to censor student speech, especially when that speech carries such clear political overtones.”
The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, the free-speech legal and advocacy group that represents the family, said it was disappointed in the decision and would appeal it. It can seek review before the full 6th Circuit or by the Supreme Cour
I actually don’t have a problem with this ruling.
How do the liberal jackass “judgeez” feel about kids wearing anti-Trump rags to school?
Did the ban the “Save a tree, eat a beaver” t-shirts?
But I bet curriculum books that describes, instructs and depicts sex acts between children is still allowed.
Priorities apparently.
Bush’s dissent was right on target. And we need to see a list of leftist clothing that was never banned.
In 2010, he [Nalbandian] was nominated by President Barack Obama and confirmed by the Senate to be a board member of the State Justice Institute to fill Keith McNamara’s seat, serving until July 11, 2018.
B.S. It was neither. She was trying to paper over the fact that Biden was being protested against.
Argued: June 12, 2025
Decided and Filed: October 14, 2025 Before: Karen Nelson Moore [Clinton stooge], John K. Bush [Trump judge], and John B. Nalbandian [McConnell stooge], Circuit Judges
Odd “coincidence”. But a revealing “coincidence”.
The story is remarkably detailed, and went to great length to emphasize that the ONE dissenting Appeals Court judge was appointed by Trump.
And NEVER mentioned who the two judges who claimed that “let’s Go Brandon” T-shirts were obscene were. Not named, not given an “appointed by” a democrat or liberal as a dictator of liberal opinions. (HW Bush, Clinton, W Bush, Obama, or Obama-Biden-Harris.)
I would not, either, except that I tired of reading all that horror stories about poor children being disciplined by wearing some leftist messages (Trump=Hitler), or some outrageous cloths, etc.
Let us be consistent.
Maybe ban all T-shirts with anything on them?!
School uniforms seems like a great idea!
Karen Nelson Moore is a Clinton stooge, a Resistance judge that should have retired 6 years ago [2018-2019].
Of course, then Trump would have replaced her - so she kept up the Resistance.
The majority opinion is by Trump and Clinton appointees. The dissent is a Trump appointee. This could go to SCOTUS. It’s the kind of case SCOTUS might hear as it involves the First Amendment.
If the shirt read “F**k Joe Biden” Im with you…. But it doesnt. It says Lets Go Brandon. Not vulgar. Its only offensive to those embarrassed enough to have bought into the medias silly protectionism of the old senile pedophile.
Nalbandian is a “Trump” McConnell stooge, and Moore is a Clinton stooge. The dissenting judge, Bush, is a Trump judge.
https://freerepublic.com/focus/news/4347459/posts?page=7#7
https://freerepublic.com/focus/news/4347459/posts?page=11#11
The “Trump” judge in the majority:
In 2010, he [Nalbandian] was nominated by President Barack Obama and confirmed by the Senate to be a board member of the State Justice Institute to fill Keith McNamara’s seat, serving until July 11, 2018.
Sounds like a McConnell stooge to me. He was in the Kentucky courts before - B*tch’s territory.
The shirt is also a satire on the extent the media will go to cover for left-wing politicians.
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