WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to hear a challenge from a Michigan mother who argued that a school district violated her sons’ First Amendment rights by banning clothing displaying the phrase “Let’s Go Brandon.”
The justices’ decision leaves in place lower-court rulings that upheld the school district’s policy.
The case involved two boys whose mother bought them “Let’s Go Brandon” sweatshirts as Christmas gifts in 2022. School officials told the students to remove the sweatshirts because of the message displayed on them.
The phrase became a political slogan after a 2021 NASCAR race. During a televised interview following driver Brandon Brown’s victory, fans in the crowd were chanting an obscenity directed at then-President Joe Biden. The television reporter mistakenly characterized the chant as “Let’s Go, Brandon,” apparently believing the crowd was cheering for Brown.
The phrase subsequently became a coded expression of opposition to Biden, with “Let’s Go Brandon” serving as a substitute for a profanity directed at the former president.
The Michigan mother argued that the school district’s policy improperly restricted political expression. Her attorneys told the Supreme Court that the phrase itself contains no profanity or sexually explicit language and argued that school officials should not be allowed to suppress political speech based on their interpretation of an expression’s meaning.
Lower courts disagreed.
The courts determined that the phrase’s implied vulgarity provided the school with sufficient grounds to restrict the clothing under its student-dress policies.
The school district argued that messages carrying lewd or vulgar implications can be restricted in a school environment even when they have a political component.
The district also pointed to other political messages that students had worn, including “Make America Great Again” apparel and clothing supporting Donald Trump.
The dispute raised broader questions about how far public schools can go in regulating political expression by students, particularly when a message does not contain explicit profanity but is widely understood to represent a vulgar expression.
The Supreme Court’s decision not to take up the case means the lower-court ruling remains in effect without the justices weighing in on the broader First Amendment question.
The “Let’s Go Brandon” slogan emerged during a period of intense political division in the United States and quickly became associated with conservative opposition to Biden.
For the Michigan students involved in the case, however, the Supreme Court’s decision leaves the school district’s restriction in place and ends their challenge at the nation’s highest court.
