Michigan’s Tri-County Area Schools banned students from wearing clothing with the political slogan “Let’s Go Brandon.” A federal trial court and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit both ruled that the school could ban the message because the phrase has a “profane double meaning.” But this is the kind of political speech the First Amendment normally protects. The Supreme Court has long held that public schools should be “nurseries of democracy” and that students “do not shed their free speech rights at the schoolhouse gate.”
On May 1, 2026, Defending Education (DE) filed a second amicus (“friend of the court”) brief in D.A. v. Tri-County Area Schools, asking the Supreme Court to decide whether schools can censor political speech that is not disruptive and not plainly profane or lewd. If the Sixth Circuit’s ruling stands, students across the region will have a harder time speaking about important political issues. DE urges the Court to take the case.
Read the full amicus brief below:
CASE DEVELOPMENTS
PDE Files 6th Circuit Court of Appeals Amicus Brief in B.A. v. Tri County Area Schools
