Columbus, OH – On Wednesday, The Buckeye Institute filed an amicus brief in B.A. v. Tri County Area Schools, calling on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit to tell Tri County Area Schools that their students’ political speech—even when it is expressed on a Let’s Go Brandon t-shirt—is protected by the First Amendment.

“Although the phrase on the sweatshirts worn by these two students may offend some people, it does so not because the statement itself is profane but because it indisputably expresses a political opinion, which is protected by the First Amendment of the U.S Constitution,” said Robert Alt, president and chief executive officer of The Buckeye Institute. “As the U.S. Supreme Court held in its famous 1969 decision (Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District), neither students nor teachers ‘shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate...’”

In its brief, The Buckeye Institute argues that a student wearing a Let’s Go Brandon t-shirt to school cannot possibly be seen as speech that represents the school, nothing in the actual phrasing is vulgar, and it does not promote illegal drug use—the three areas where the U.S. Supreme Court allows schools to regulate student speech. 

“Government cannot punish speech—as the school did in this case—for any reason that does not fall within one of the Supreme Court’s approved exceptions,” said Bradley A. Smith, chairman of The Buckeye Institute’s Board of Trustees, former FEC chairman, and one of the nation’s foremost experts on the First Amendment. “The appellants’ choice of attire, fashionable or not, clearly conveyed a political message without using profanity and is therefore protected by the First Amendment.”

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