Appeals court backs Michigan school in banning 'Let's Go Brandon' shirts

[Eugene]

Source: Associated Press

Appeals court backs Michigan school in banning ‘Let’s Go Brandon’ shirts

Updated 5:28 PM EDT, October 14, 2025

SAND LAKE, Mich. (AP) — A federal appeals court on Tuesday ruled in favor of a Michigan school district in a dispute over free speech and “Let’s Go Brandon” shirts, clothing that took a jab at then-President Joe Biden.

The mother of two boys, who got the shirts as Christmas gifts, said her sons’ First Amendment rights were violated when they were told to take off the shirts at Tri County Middle School in 2022. The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals disagreed in 2-1 opinion.

“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,” said judges John Nalbandian and Karen Nelson Moore.

In 2021, an obscenity directed at Biden was being chanted at a NASCAR race, though a TV sports reporter said it was “Let’s Go, Brandon.” The line suddenly became popular among Biden’s conservative critics.

-snip-

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/lets-go-brandon-michigan-school-f525861e5634ef04ca331b2fe0a5438f

[no_hypocrisy]

1. As much as I agree with this court decision, I also believe it's fated to fail upon appeal.

SCOTUS has ruled against banning students wearing black armbands to protest the Vietnam War.
Tinker v. Des Moines 1965
https://www.aclu.org/documents/tinker-v-des-moines-landmark-supreme-court-ruling-behalf-student-expression

And my boss won on appeal when students wanted to wear buttons showing Hitler Youth, protesting mandated uniforms in school.
Laura DePINTO, individually abd [sic] as Guardian Ad Litem of M.D., a minor, and Michael LaRocco and Robin LaRocco, individually and as Guardian s Ad Litem of A.L., a minor, Plaintiffs, v. BAYONNE BOARD OF EDUCATION, Catherine Quinn, Janice Lore and Patricia McGeehan, Defendants. 2007 *
https://uk.practicallaw.thomsonreuters.com/Link/Document/FullText?findType=Y&serNum=2013221076&originatingDoc=If83e9f5f513e11dfae65b23e804c3c12&refType=RP&originationContext=document&transitionType=PLDocumentLink&billingHash=D3ED5FF52DF225BC79C54D2BDD064DF38DE0930B9EA55BF9969AC145521C878E&ppcid=9f30c56f75684c3196ff2c60a3c410e5&contextData=(sc.PracticalLaw)

* I believe this was a Sam Alito opinion when he was a federal circuit judge.