B.A. v. Tri County Area Schools

On December 11, the Liberty Justice Center filed an amicus brief with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit in B.A. v. Tri County Area Schools, a case challenging a Michigan school’s censorship of student speech—in the form of sweatshirts that say “Let’s Go Brandon.”

In 2022, Tri County Middle School banned two brothers from wearing sweatshirts printed with the phrase “Let’s Go Brandon,” claiming that the sweatshirts violated a school policy against “lewd, indecent, vulgar, or profane” speech. The boys’ family sued to challenge the ban as a restriction of students’ political speech. However, a district court upheld the ban—holding, in essence, that a euphemism is legally indistinguishable from profanity on school grounds.

The Liberty Justice Center’s amicus brief urges the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit to overturn the district court’s ruling. The brief argues that school officials violate students’ First Amendment rights by censoring their message that reflects mainstream political discourse. The brief also highlights the growing number of lawsuits nationwide that challenge administrators’ attempts to police students’ speech and conduct without justification—noting, for example, a recent ACLU lawsuit over a school’s decision to suspend students who participated in a school-sponsored walkout because they carried posters that had not been submitted to administrators for approval in advance.

In addition, the Liberty Justice Center’s amicus brief points out that euphemisms are not the equivalent of their references—which is why inoffensive exclamations like “darn,” “shoot,” or “heck” are permitted in children’s television without increasing a program’s maturity rating—and argues that students should not be punished for obscenities they never spoke.

“School officials have no right to censor a student’s free speech because of their personal objection to the implied political content of that speech. We urge the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals to reverse the lower court’s ruling and uphold students’ First Amendment rights,” said Buck Dougherty, Senior Counsel at the Liberty Justice Center.

The Liberty Justice Center’s amicus brief in B.A. v. Tri County Area Schools is available here.