We previously discussed how schools were making students remove sweatshirts reading “Let’s Go Brandon.” I have argued that the shirts should be treated as protected speech. However, United States District Court Judge Christopher Boyko just delivered another blow to free speech in rejecting a claim for such protection, at least as the basis for injunctive relief, in Conrad v. Madison Local School Dist—Bd. of Ed.
In the prior Michigan case with the sweater shown below, Judge Paul Maloney in D.A. v. Tri County Area Schools (W.D. Mich.) ruled that a “Let’s Go Brandon” T-shirt could be the basis for punishment:
A school can certainly prohibit students from wearing a shirt displaying the phrase F*** Joe Biden. Plaintiffs concede this conclusion. Plaintiff must make this concession as the Supreme Court said as much in Fraser … (“As cogently expressed by Judge Newman, ‘the First Amendment gives a high school student the classroom right to wear Tinker’s armband, but not Cohen’s jacket [which read {F*** the Draft}].'”) The relevant four-letter word is a swear word and would be considered vulgar and profane. The Sixth Circuit has written that “it has long been held that despite the sanctity of the First Amendment, speech that is vulgar or profane is not entitled to absolute constitutional protection.” …
If schools can prohibit students from wearing apparel that contains profanity, schools can also prohibit students from wearing apparel that can reasonably be interpreted as profane. Removing a few letters from the profane word or replacing letters with symbols would not render the message acceptable in a school setting. School administrators could prohibit a shirt that reads “F#%* Joe Biden.” School officials have restricted student from wearing shirts that use homophones for profane words … [such as] “Somebody Went to HOOVER DAM And All I Got Was This ‘DAM’ Shirt.” … [Defendants] recalled speaking to one student who was wearing a hat that said “Fet’s Luck” … [and asking] a student to change out of a hoodie that displayed the words “Uranus Liquor” because the message was lewd. School officials could likely prohibit students from wearing concert shirts from the music duo LMFAO (Laughing My F***ing A** Off) or apparel displaying “AITA?” (Am I the A**hole?)…. Courts too have recognized how seemingly innocuous phrases may convey profane messages. A county court in San Diego, California referred an attorney to the State Bar when counsel, during a hearing, twice directed the phrase “See You Next Tuesday” toward two female attorneys.
Again, I strongly disagreed with that decision. However, it has now been replicated in Ohio.
In his complaint, C.C. details how he was wearing a shirt with the phrase “Let’s Go Brandon” on November 25, 2024, underneath a flannel shirt. He alleges that teacher (and registered Democrat) Krista Ferini was bothered after spotting the shirt and ordered him to “button that up. I know what that means.” C.C. did so, but later, he was in a classroom that lacked air conditioning, so he took off his flannel shirt. That is when allegedly Ferini proceeded to write him up for the infraction. Principal Andrew Keeple then instructed C.C. to wear the flannel the rest of the day and never to wear the shirt to school again.
C.C. defied that order and wore the shirt again in January of 2025. While no one else complained, Ferini was reportedly irate and again wrote up C.C. Keeple declared that C.C. had once again violated the school’s dress code and that the shirt constituted a vulgar expression even though it contained no vulgar terms. He stated that further discipline would follow if C.C. continued to wear the shirt.
On March 24, 2025, C.C. wore the t-shirt again. While no one complained, he received a detention from Keeple. C.C. was disciplined on two other occasions for wearing the shirt.
The court ruled:
“While this case presents serious questions of student free speech versus a school’s interest in protecting students from vulgar and profane speech, the Court finds Plaintiff has not met his high burden to show a substantial likelihood of success on the merits by clear and convincing evidence. While the D.A. case was on summary judgment and presented facts that are different than those before this Court, Defendant’s burden on summary judgment was a preponderance standard which is a lesser burden than Plaintiff’s here. Moreover, that case presented fact issues going to the reasonableness of the school’s interpretation. Here, as Defendants point out, Plaintiff acknowledges in his Verified Complaint that “Let’s Go Brandon” is a euphemism for F*#% Joe Biden. “In school speech cases where a school limits or restricts a student’s expression, courts must determine whether the school’s interpretation of the expression is reasonable.” “The student’s expression must be considered in the proper context but the student’s motivation or subjective intent is irrelevant.”
Given the strong interests of both sides, the unique characteristics of speech in a school setting, the finding by at least one court in this circuit that the school’s interpretation of the phrase as vulgar was reasonable, and the acknowledgment in this case by Plaintiff that the phrase is a vulgar euphemism, the Court finds Plaintiff has not shown a substantial likelihood of success on the merits to support injunctive relief. This does not mean Plaintiff cannot win on the merits of the claim as discovery will likely provide clearer evidence on the reasonableness of the interpretation. But given the high standard for injunctive relief, the Court finds against Plaintiff….”
“Let’s Go Brandon!” has become a similarly unintended political battle cry not just against Biden but also against the bias of the media. It derives from an Oct. 2 interview with race-car driver Brandon Brown after he won his first NASCAR Xfinity Series race. During the interview, NBC reporter Kelli Stavast’s questions were drowned out by loud-and-clear chants of “F*** Joe Biden.” Stavast quickly and inexplicably declared, “You can hear the chants from the crowd, ‘Let’s go, Brandon!’”
“Let’s Go Brandon!” instantly became a type of “Yankee Doodling” of the political and media establishment.
This teacher was clearly put out over the political messaging of the shirt. However, we should encourage students to be politically aware and expressive. Moreover, if schools are allowed to extrapolate profane meaning from non-profane language, it is hard to see the limits on such censorship.
So what if students now wear “Let’s Go Krista” shirts? How many degrees of removal will negate the profane imputation. Does that mean that the use of “let’s go” in any shirt is now prohibited?
C.C. and his family should continue to litigate and, if necessary, appeal this worthy case in the interests of free speech for all students.
Jonathan Turley is the Shapiro professor of public interest law at George Washington University and the author of “The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage.”
Once again the Federal Judiciary shows it’s clear bias and anti-Constitutional direction. This opinion is in the same light as allowing Government to mandate a deadly vaccine mandate to purculate in their rulings. The Judicial Branch is the biggest threat to the Constitution since the Civil War….
No that’s Trump not the courts!
Trump supports any president being able to overturn constitutional amendments in a single day through executive order. Trump signed an EO on January 20 to overturn the 14th Amendment and is hinting at overturning the 22nd Amendment.
Reminder: constitutional-amendments (not part of the original constitution in 1789) include the 2nd Amendment gun rights. Unless stopped by judges, Trump is weakening all constitutional rights including gun rights and property rights.
Every word out of your mouth is a lie. We all know that. You’re not fooling anyone.
Could a public school student in Virginia wear the official state seal of Virginia on a tee shirt? It has a fully exposed female breast and says in Latin “Death to Tyrants”! Very offensive to prudes!
Maybe you could give us your opinion on that. Whatever the answer is, it has nothing to do with this case.
OT: Trump’s comments in Riyadh
“No, the gleaming marvels of Riyadh and Abu Dhabi were not created by the so-called ‘nation builders,’ neocons, or liberal non-profits like those who spent trillions and trillions of dollars failing to develop Baghdad, so many other cities,” he said. “Instead, the birth of a modern Middle East has been brought by the people of the region themselves, the people that are right here, the people that have lived here all their lives, developing your own sovereign countries, pursuing your own unique visions and charting your own destinies in your own way.”
“You achieved a modern miracle the Arabian way,” Trump asserted.
“It’s crucial for the wider world to know this great transformation has not come from Western interventionists, or flying people in beautiful planes giving you lectures on how to live and how to govern your own affairs,” he said. “In the end, the so-called nation builders wrecked far more nations than they built and the interventionalists were intervening in complex societies that they did not even understand themselves.”
S. Meyer
Just for the record the Saudis did not build their own country by themselves.
The country was built by foreign workers. There are about 4 million foreigners who actually work and build stuff in Saudi Arabia. That is about a third of the population.
Only about 50% of Saudis actually have jobs, and the vast majority work for the government., but actually work only about 1 hour a day at pointless jobs.
All Saudi citizens get a monthly allowance from the government, free housing, free land and free education. They pay no taxes.There is no incentive to work. Oil revenues allow Saudis to have a life of leisure. They have no work ethic or sense of innovation to do things.
Vast numbers of poorly-treated immigrant workers from countries like Pakistan, India, the Philippines, and Bangladesh actually do the work of building infrastructure.
Foreign companies do all the oil exploration and production under contract.
Saudis just lead frivolous lives of consumption because of their vast wealth.
Blah blah blah. The foreign workers didn’t build it themselves, they used trucks and shovels, and engineering, and money, and dreams, and plans.
If the US was to get an average of 1 hour of labor per day from all the crooks, swindlers, and rabble it pays the country would be getting about 55 minutes more labor a day than it currently gets.
You are so right. Their illegal aliens go home when their jobs are completed. The Saudis are not so insane as to allow them to stay, leech, sponge, freeload, and vote as the communists (liberals, progressives, socialists, democrats, RINOs, AINOs) in America do.
Actually, the foreign workers in Saudi Arabia are not “illegal aliens”.
They are there perfectly legally, because the Saudis are too lazy to actually do any work.
The workers do not go home after the job is done, because the work is never finished.
The workers are kept as a permanent underclass to do the dirty work of construction, and menial service jobs that Saudis refuse to do.
The workers are treated as slaves, working very long hours for very little pay, but this is still better than being unemployed in their own countries.
They are employed on a contract basis which technically has expiration dates of one to two years, but in reality the contracts are continuously renewable.
The Saudis do this so that any recalcitrant workers can be expelled at the end of the contract and replaced with more compliant slaves.
The workers know that renewal of their contract depends on how subservient they are.
This system is designed to keep the workers in line as a permanent underclass of essentially slave labor.
And that is exactly what America should have been doing since January 1, 1863.
Where are all those missing children? Sold, kidnapped? Saudis can’t donate organs but can get organs from non Islamic people? Scary…
General Patton would have gone in there in the 1880s, guns blazin’, put those autochthonous cohabitants on reservations, pumped the oil out, and put it in oil tankers bound for the West.
Don’t forget the murder of kashogi
Aside from the top of your head, what is your point?
S. Meyer,
I thought it was brilliant.
I also think his courageous stand during the assassination attempt earned him the respect of everyone who honors courage.
He gives me hope for America and the world.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ZYH8v42a2w start on 15 seconds
Beautiful
So you think Trump’s completely false, sycophantic and pandering description of Saudi Arabia was brilliant.
Really ?????
You really have drunk the kool-aid, and joined the cult.
You think Trump was courageous when he ducked and hit the deck after being shot at ?????
That gives you hope for America ????
What exactly was courageous about that ???
How simple-minded can you possibly get ???
You are a brainwashed member of a cult..
Anonymous, you never learned how to play in the sandbox. Someone should have hit you over the head with a rock. Unfortunately they gave you Ripple and you liked it remaining in the sandbox ever since.
An
you are a brainwashed member of a cult..
**********************
Speaking of Cults. Read this fools words and you’ll see who a cults really is!
The court is wrong and leaves open non-ending claims permitting bias based on prevailing viewpoints. The only answer is school uniforms without attachments. Is that good? No, but better the inappropriate use of discipline and penalties.
S. Meyer
This insult is far below your usual standard of snotty condescension.
Very disappointing.
I’m afraid you get an F for this one.
Please try again, and try to do better.
Yet another look at the corruption of our judicial system.
Liz Collins interviews Tou Thao who was sent to prison in the George Floyd fiasco. He was a police officer present at the time and his one significant act was to make an urgent call for an ambulance.
The disgusting judge during sentencing complained that he saw no remorse from Tou.
Remorse for what? For calling an ambulance?
https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2025/05/tou-thao-speaks.php
Tou says, probably correctly, that if Officer Chauvin had been any race but white this would never have been an issue. Nobody would have been charged, tried or sent to prison. The leftists, the Democrats, are racist and they show it every day.
Rogue Juristocracy!
This wasn’t justice; it was a show trial staged to please leftist ideologues and pacify a mob.
You could find words in the King James Bible, Torah or any religious text that could be censored. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that students [citizens] have a right to wear religious symbols, jewelry, etc. to school. Public school employees [government officials] however do not have the legal right to impose their religious interpretation onto students.
The Bible contains all kinds of lewd and obscene things (everything rated R in the movies is also in the Bible), so what if a student wears a tee shirt with profane words or images from the Bible? How would courts rule on lewd religious speech?
That’s the problem. Vulgarity and obscenity are subjective to each viewer, it can’t be defined – therefore it can’t be censored by government officials.
Just as a private property private school enjoys the power to “claim and exercise” dominion, the management of all schools must retain the power to ensure the proper decorum that is conducive to education; that may be anything up to and including the full denial of slogans, texts, and other expressions.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
“[Private property is] that dominion which one man claims and exercises over the external things of the world, in exclusion of every other individual.”
– James Madison
An
Vulgarity and obscenity are subjective to each viewer,
__________________________
So you are paying attention to the dem party right now. All they do is cuss the second they get near a microphone. (F-bombs galore)
The most dangerous part of this ruling is that it censors “code-words” not the actual words considered profane by the censors.
With such an unconstitutional ruling, it could create a slippery slope to censor the best song lyrics from the 1960’s until today.
Think of your favorite oldies songs, they could theoretically be censored under this faulty ruling.
Decades ago, comedian George Carlin pointed out the hypocrisy that back then the government tried to censor explicit profanity but not the code-words meaning exactly the same thing. One could use the polite code-words but not the actual words.
Carlin pointed out it’s perfectly fine to say “sleep with someone” but you could use the F word. You can use code-words for body parts, just not the real words. This judge is censoring the code-words.
The other part that is unconstitutional is that public schools [government entity] has no censorship authority under the First Amendment. Public school principals and teachers are government employees, students are citizens protected from government censorship.
The only legal constitutional solution is require school uniforms or a blanket policy covering all clothing.
Smh
The conversion of the Qatar 747 for Trump is surrounded with secrecy and mystery.
The contractor for the job is supposedly L3Harris. However the plane has been spotted at the San Antonio airport at the facilities operated by ST Engineering.
The tail number has been deliberately obscured.
https://www.expressnews.com/business/article/trump-qatar-jet-air-force-one-san-antonio-20317550.php
L3Harris has repair facilities and a paint shop at San Antonio. They do not do major conversions in San Antonio. They have conversion facilities at Greenville, TX and Waco, TX.
They usually subcontract work on wide body aircraft to ST Engineering.
So who is ST Engineering????
They are a Singapore company with facilities all around the world.
They do a lot of business in China, meaning that they have close relationships with the Chinese government.
What could possibly go wrong ????
Added to that, they have a long history of corruption and several of its executives have served jail time.
In 2014, ST Engineering was hit by one of the largest corruption scandals in Singapore history following investigations by the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau.
In December 2014, ST Engineering president, Chang Cheow Teck, was charged with conspiring with two subordinates to offer bribes in return for repair contracts between 2004 and 2010. The corruption charges were eventually withdrawn and in January 2017, Chang pleaded guilty to “failing to use reasonable diligence in performing his duties” and was given a short detention sentence of 14 days.
CEO See Leong Teck was also charged with seven counts of corruption. In December 2016, See was sentenced to 10 months’ jail and a $100,000 fine.
Six other ST Engineering senior executives were implicated in the corruption scandal, including the financial controller and senior vice-president of finance Ong Tek Liam who pleaded guilty to ten out of 118 charges relating to the falsification of accounts.
Senior vice-president Mok Kim Whang pleaded guilty to 49 out of 826 corruption charges.
Chief operating officer Han Yew Kwang pleaded guilty to 50 out of 407 charges and was sentenced to six months’ jail and fined $80,000.
President of commercial business Tan Mong Seng faced 445 corruption charges and was sentenced to 16 weeks’ jail.
Financial controller Patrick Lee Swee Ching pled guilty to seven of 38 charges of conspiring with others between 2004 and 2007 to make false entries in company records, and was given the maximum fine of $210,000.
In June 2017, Ong Teck Liam was sentenced to a fine of SGD300,000 ($217,200), in default 30 weeks’ imprisonment.
So it looks like the conversion will be done by a company with close ties to the Chinese government, and a long history of corruption.
One of the key elements of the conversion should be to search for bugs, listening devices and other espionage devices already installed on this aircraft.
However, I think we can safely assume that this company will actually be INSTALLING such devices on instructions from the Chinese government.
You do know Boeing does 747 work in San Antonio.
Dustoff
So what ???????
Boeing doesn’t have the contract.
Trump has said he doesn’t want Boeing involved because they take too long.
We know L3Harris has the contract.
https://airguide.info/l3harris-to-retrofit-qatari-jumbo-for-air-force-one/#:~:text=The%20U.S.%20government%20has%20tapped,aides%20began%20exploring%20other%20options.
We know L3Harris does not do major conversions in San Antonio. They do this work in Greenville or Waco.
We know L3Harris usually subcontracts wide body work to ST Engineering.
According to the local San Antonio paper the aircraft was seen being moved into the ST Engineering hangar.
The work is being done by ST Engineering, a foreign company with close ties to China and a long history of corruption.
An
Did you read this part?
a person familiar with the matter said. The decision comes amid growing concern in the Trump administration over persistent delays and cost overruns on Boeing’s original retrofit program for two new presidential aircraft. President Trump toured the Qatari jet in Florida this past winter and publicly floated the idea of acquiring an alternative plane to meet the administration’s timeline.
A person familiar. How nice.
S. Meyer
Just for the record the Saudis did not build their country.
The country was built by foreign workers. There are about 4 million foreigners who actually work and build stuff in Saudi Arabia. That is about a third of the population.
Only about 50% of Saudis actually have jobs, and the vast majority work for the government., but actually work only about 1 hour a day at pointless jobs.
All Saudi citizens get a monthly allowance from the government, free housing, free land and free education. They pay no taxes.There is no incentive to work. Oil revenues allow Saudis to have a life of leisure. They have no work ethic or sense of innovation to do things.
Vast numbers of poorly-treated immigrant workers from countries like Pakistan, India, the Philippines, and Bangladesh actually do the work of building infrastructure.
Foreign companies do all the oil exploration and production under contract.
Saudis just lead frivolous lives of consumption because of their vast wealth.
OT
“We have a black pope!”
– Sunny Hostin
__________________
The Catholic Church proves itself a grand fraud by executing an awkward, arbitrary, non-religious, and political act of affirmative action in appointing an African-American Pope, by DNA nonetheless.
Child abuse and communistic affirmative action: Exactly how much deceit and perfidy can the church perpetrate and sustain?
A struggling technology company that has ties to China and relies on TikTok made an unusual announcement this week. It had secured funding to buy as much as $300 million of $TRUMP, the so-called meme coin marketed by President Donald Trump.
GD Culture Group, a publicly traded firm with a Chinese subsidiary, has only eight employees, its public filings show, and recorded zero revenue last year from an e-commerce business it operates on TikTok, a Chinese-owned video-sharing app.
But on Monday, GD Culture Group became the latest business with foreign ties to seize on Trump’s crypto venture, which channels profits directly to the Trump family and has generated conflicts of interest that have alarmed ethics experts.
In its statement, GD Culture Group, which is traded on the Nasdaq, said it would spend $300 million on a stockpile of $TRUMP, using proceeds from a stock sale to an unnamed entity in the British Virgin Islands, a popular tax haven. It confirmed that investment plan in a securities filing late Tuesday.
So to summarize, a Chinese e-commerce business with close ties to Tik Tok, and therefore the Chinese government, which had NO revenue in 2024, and only has 8 employees, has sold stock to an investor in the British Virgin Islands to raise $300 million that it has used to buy Trump’s meme coin.
The company is listed on NASDAQ and has a market cap of $26 million, but someone supposedly invested $300 million in this company that does not report any revenue.
Do you MAGA morons understand what is really going on here ????
https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/nation-politics/tiny-company-with-china-ties-announces-big-purchase-of-trump-cryptocurrency/
For those of you too stupid to understand, some unidentified person slipped $300 million into Trump’s pocket.
I wonder what they expect in return ????
Ukraine into NATO?
Double yawn.
PS on that 747 issue (Sunday that the Defense Department would be receiving a “GIFT, FREE OF CHARGE, of a 747 aircraft)
You fools, just spitting in the wind
It requires congress approval
Yep you have no proof and if true. All of the MSN would jump on it…
Try harder
“. . . some unidentified person slipped $300 million into Trump’s pocket.”
You lied about GD Culture Group’s purchase.
Imagine that.
Jonathan: You say we “should encourage students to be politically aware and expressive”. It therefore follows that a high school student in Ohio should be allowed to wear a “Let’s Go Brandon” shirt on campus without being penalized. Spending a whole column on this case is another example of your attempt at distraction–the failure to address much more egregious cases of suppression of student free expression rights.
Take the case of Rumeysa Ozturk, a Tufts University student and doctoral candidate studying on a student visa. On March 25 she was grabbed off a street in Boston by masked and unidentified federal agents and taken to a detention camp in Louisiana. Her alleged crime? She wrote an opinion piece in the Tufts student newspaper critical of Israel and its treatment of the Palestinians.
Last Friday federal judge William Sessions ordered that Ozturk be released from detention because her free speech and due process rights had been violated. Sessions said Ozturk’s continued detention “potentially chills the speech of the millions of individuals in this country who are not citizens. Any one of them may now avoid exercising their first amendment rights for fear of being whisked away to a detention center far from their home. For all of those reasons, the court finds that her continued detention cannot stand.” The judge went on the say “This is a woman who’s just totally committed to her academic career…there is absolutely no evidence that she was engaged in violence or advocated violence. She has no criminal record…the reason that she has been detailed is simply and purely the expression that she made…in violation of her first amendment rights”.
Why is it that you would write an entire column about the free speech rights of a high schooler in Ohio while ignoring the case of Remeysa Ozturk who was snatched off the street and detained for over 2 months? The stark contrast between the two cases shows where your priorities lie. They apparently lie with someone who you think should be able to proudly say in effect “F**k Biden” rather than defending the right of a Tufts student to write a column without being carted off to prison. It seems your priorities are out of whack!
Imagine a U.S. student attending university in Moscow at their pleasure. Suppose that student began writing about the war in Ukraine that is against Russia. Suppose that same student stirred up Russian students to cause vandalism and chaos?
Do you think that student would have the nerve to sue the Russian government? They would be arrested and never see the light of day as long as they live.
That is how preposterous the radical left wing agitators sound.
There are too many festering sores of totalitarianism masquerading as Clinton, Obama and Biden judicial appointees on our benches. They all need to remember their pet phrase: NO ONE IS ABOVE THE LAW – including rogue judges.
Schools must establish an environment that is conducive to the education of students.
In this case, the t-shirt slogan is clearly inflammatory and incitive and must not be allowed.
An effective school requires uniforms that preclude diversion and disruption entirely.
The Marine Corps Combat Utility Uniform (MCCUU) is the uniform in the University of Marine Corps, where students pay very close attention to the curriculum of necessity without distraction.
Of course, it goes without saying that maximally effective schools are utterly devoid of politics and gender-segregated.
“t-shirt slogan is clearly inflammatory and incitive and must be allowed.”
That’s better, now go whine in the corner by yourself. Biden was a corrupt POS, the media was shilling for him, and the left deserve to have it shoved in their faces 24/7. God you people are pathetic losers.
Yep! Enhance the education environment; make it conducive. Uniforms! That’s the ticket!
Ego Brandin’
In Other News: “School District Spends $900,000.00 in Legal Fees Forcing Economics Student to Remove Shirt That Read ‘Fiduciary Responsibility'”
School Principal Phillip DeGlass claimed claimed victory in ensuring that students know exactly who is in charge and most importantly that school officials are never wrong. He stated, “I might not agree with you, but I will fight you to the last penny for my right to have the last word.”
Glass took the opportunity of the press interview to declare the 20 year old high school building is obsolete and it needs to be torn down and replaced by a $200,000,000.00 palace. 1% of the funds will be directed to a statue of himself in the main courtyard.
Voters are expected to rubber stamp the financing via a new bond issue that replaces current school’s recently retired one.
@Darren
Good to see you, Darren. 😊
Darren,
Good one!
Yes, I could see where the term, “Fiduciary Responsibility,” would trigger some. Comical.
Good god, even the Dick and Jane first grade reader is pornographic drug promotion! For everybody knows what a Dick is; every man and boy has one. While Jane is short for Maryjane, i.e., MJ and everybody knows who sells that!
Lot’s go, Brandon and get out of this madhouse!
When you try to make a proxy out of facially protected speech it opens up Pandora’s box. Goshdarnit. Is that taking the Lord’s name in vain with profanity? And what do you do about a clearly protected message also in the speech? In this case “the press disserves us when it reports not what the crowd said”? Schools have two interests. First, control profanity to educate discourse over discoarse. Second, to control disruptions and distractions that booger up attention to the lesson plan. I would say that the school here present none of those interests , whether under strict, intermediate or reasonable basis scrutiny.
NO 1A, then 2A. Tic toc, tic toc
The judge is full of schiff.
This profanity once removed nonsense, is malarky that returns us to teachers and schools and judges being able to make subjective determinations of what speech is allowed.
F#$K is itself a euphamism for sexual intercourse. Except that it is also a statement of anger and contempt.
Further profanity is now so commonplace that it has lost its power to disrupt. The courts lower standard of protection for profanity is rooted, in its power to disrupt.
So here we are – that power dramatically diminished in the years since decisions on profanity, dealing with speech that is several levels removed from profanity.
What does “F#$K Joe Biden” mean ? Does it actually mean have sexual intercourse with Biden ?
It is just an expression of extreme displeasure with Joe Biden. What does “Lets Go Brandon” mean ?
Does it mean the same thing as F#$K Joe Biden ? Yes and no – and that is why the court is wrong.
Lets go brandon IS a euphemism for “F#$K Joe Biden” it is NOT a euphamism for have sexual intercourse with Joe Biden. But it does mean I am angry with and do not support Joe Biden.
The POINT of various euphamisms on top of euphamisms is to be able to express the same anger and disdain WITHOUT the profanity.
I would prefer to live in a world were profanity was not commonplace – but that world is past.
F#$K no longer has the disruptive power it once did. The courts must recognize that.
But even more than that – not now, not ever can your bar speech that would otherwise be acceptable, soley because it is a euphamism for speech that in the past was deemed disruptive.
FJB and LGB do NOT mean the same thing, but even if they did – today both are protected speech – even in schools. and neither are disruptive – except to people who find the political message disturbing – and that is exactly why LGB is protected speech – what tinker protects is that political message. The black armbands in Tinker were themselves a euphamism – a symbolic expression of something else.
F#%k means ” very”. This is a f#$king great dinner.
Turley’s point would be valid if his own blog allowed profanity. But we all know he’s a big fan of civility and rules. If a “Let’s go Brandon” t-shirt which is well known what it really means in inapropriate for school then the judge is correct.
It’s no different than the infamous “Bong hits for Jesus’ banner displayed at a school parade. It was not profane or rude, was satire allegedly promoting drug use. The argument was that it was promoting drug use despite not directly saying people should take some bong hits. This case falls under the same principle.
Turley always supports punishing students for breaking the rules, up to explulsion. Here he seems to oppose punishing a student because he…broke the rules. Can’t have it both ways.
Poor baby. You do cry way to much
Turley’s blog is NOT a government entity.
Private actors can have whatever rules they want in their own private spaces.
If you do not like the rules here – go elsewhere.
There is no cost to you for being here – there is no cost to you for leaving.
Further you Stupidly Make Turley’s point in your argument.
You can post “Lets Go Brandon” all you want.
You can NOT post “F#$K Joe Biden”
They are NOT the same.
I would further note that I beleive that Darren has previously stated that while SOME of the rules for this blog are absolute – and will get you banned.
That most of the rules such as the profanity rules are just what WordPress provides conveniently.
Private actors make many decisions that can be viewed as censorship out of convenience – not based on actual content, or personal preferences.
John.
You would think George should know this blog is run by Turley and he sets the rules
George;
What does “Lets Go Brandon” really mean ?
Does it literally mean lets F#$K Joe Biden up the a$$ ?
Or does it mean that Joe Biden was a disastrously bad president ?
One of the problems that YOU and this judge have is that
The courts allowable restrictions on profane speech are NOT about the literal meaning of the speech, they are about the disruptive nature of profanity.
Time and overuse has significantly diminished the disruption of profanity.
Regardless “lets go brandon” and “F#$K Joe Biden” mean the same thing.
And what both mean is protected free political speech.
Both mean Joe Biden was a lousy president.
But F#$K Joe Biden is profane – and once upon a time was shocking and disruptive and could be banned in school for being disruptive.
Lets Go Brandon is NOT profane or disruptive, even though it expresses exactly the same displeasure with Biden.
“Make love to Joe Biden” literally means the same thing as “F#$K Joe Biden” but it has a radically different connotation.
F#$k means “go to he’ll “
“Go To Hell Joe Biden”
is protected speech
Tax dollars did not purchase and manage and operate this website. Your analogy is as wrong as the legal ruling.
MINOR. CHILDREN. DO. NOT. HAVE. UNLIMITED. FREE. SPEECH. RIGHTS .
PERIOD.
END. OF. DISCUSSION.
I can guarantee you that this kid’s parents control his speech at home. They call him out and maybe punish him for foul language.
Teachers acting in loco parentis are simply doing what the kid’s parents do.
If the parents don’t like it then they can take the kid out of school.
Minor children do not have unlimited free speech rights – in that you are correct.
They have LIMITED free speech rights – and that is the point.
This students ACTUAL parents can limit his right to political expression.
Public schools can not. That is the core of the decision in Tinker.
Limited rights do not mean NO rights.
No the parents can NOT just take him out of school – those of you on the left have made that illegal.
This student MUST attend school in some form. SOME parents have the resources to remove their children from oppressive public schools. Most do not.
If you wish to pass laws that a few states now have that allow public funding for a students education to follow the student – then you can make this claim.
Regardless, the parents paid taxes for the public education of their child.
They can not be FORCED to pay those taxes AND have to pay additional private school costs to allow their childs free speech rights to be protected.
Personally I would prefer to see schools able to educate students however they please.
To be able to require uniforms or not, ban cell phones or not. Bar speech or not. Bar some speech or not.
But that is only acceptable when parents are free to choose the school their children attend.
It is NOT permissable to have GOVERNMENT infringe on either the parents or the students rights – including the right of free speech.
AS usual – problems with infringing on constitutional rights go away when govenrment gets out of domains that are none of its business – such as running schools.
In all fairness, this was just a denial of a preliminary injunction – which means the student lost out on a trip to the Mansfield Reformatory and to Cedar Point (an amusement park near Toledo, with roller coasters, etc.). The case is not over.
The following is from the court order, quoting the Supreme Court: “At the same time, we have held
that the ‘constitutional rights of students in public school are not automatically coextensive with
the rights of adults in other settings,’” Bethel School Dist. No. 403 v. Fraser, 478 U.S. 675, 682,
106 S.Ct. 3159, 92 L.Ed.2d 549 (1986), “and the rights of students ‘must be ‘applied in light of
the special characteristics of the school environment,’” Hazelwood School Dist. v. Kuhlmeier,
484 U.S. 260, 266, 108 S.Ct. 562, 98 L.Ed.2d 592 (1988) (quoting Tinker, supra, at 506, 89 S.Ct.
733). “In each situation, a court must consider both the First Amendment interests of the
students and the educational mission of the schools.” D.A. by & through B.A. v. Tri Cnty. Area
Sch., 746 F. Supp. 3d 447, 456 (W.D. Mich. 2024). Political speech, of course, is “at the core of
what the First Amendment is designed to protect.” Morse, 551 U.S. at 403, quoting Virginia v.
Black, 538 U.S. 343, 365, 123 S.Ct. 1536, 155 L.Ed.2d 535 (2003) (plurality opinion)
However, the Sixth Circuit has noted “it has long been held that despite the sanctity of the First
Amendment, speech that is vulgar or profane is not entitled to absolute constitutional protection.”
Bonnell v. Lorenzo, 241 F.3d 800, 821 (2001).
I submit that there was no profane or vulgar speech here.
It was an improper denial of a preliminary injunction.
While you are correct, that the speech rights of students are not the same as adults, and you cite the case law on that.
This is still political speech – which is the most protected form of speech.
And Tinker is still good law so long as the speech in question is not vulgar or profane.
and “Lets Go Brandon” is neither.
The Courts euphemism argument – cuts AGAINST its conclusion.
The purpose and nature of a euphemism is to REMOVE shocking and disruptive connotations.
We are dealing with the first amendment – which requires strict scrutiny.
Apparently adult children believe that they can censor kids…Boyko and Ferini are whiny losers, they are democrat (read degenerate, worthless, corrupt and/or morons) operatives that need to be FORCED to know what the 1A is for and why it is defended against all – foreign or domestic.
Loser democrats love abusing kids