The Supreme Court declined to hear a First Amendment appeal from two Michigan middle school brothers who were ordered to remove "Let's Go Brandon" sweatshirts in 2022. By rejecting the case on October 5, 2026, the justices left in place a 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling favoring the Tri County Area Schools district. The school district successfully argued that the slogan, which originated as a right-wing euphemism for a vulgarity targeting Joe Biden, violates school policies against vulgar speech.
Supreme Court declines the appeal
- ▪The Supreme Court of the United States declined on October 5, 2026, to hear a First Amendment appeal from two Michigan middle school brothers who were ordered to remove "Let's Go Brandon" sweatshirts
- ▪By declining the appeal from two Michigan brothers on October 5, 2026, the Supreme Court of the United States left in place a split 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that favored the Tri County Area Schools district
Lawsuit and lower court ruling
- ▪The family of two Michigan students, identified as D.A. and X.A., sued the Tri County Area Schools district in 2023, alleging that forcing them to remove their "Let's Go Brandon" sweatshirts violated their First and Fourteenth Amendment rights
- ▪The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the Tri County Area Schools district, stating that political speech protections do not give students license to use vulgarity at school, even when cloaked in euphemism
Legal arguments in the case
- ▪Lawyers for Tri County Area Schools argued that the 1986 Supreme Court precedent in Bethel School District v. Fraser allows administrators to restrict vulgar, profane, or lewd speech even when expressed in sanitized code
- ▪Lawyers representing two Michigan students, identified as D.A. and X.A., argued that the "Let's Go Brandon" apparel is protected political speech that cannot be censored by school administrators as long as it does not cause a classroom disruption
Origin of the phrase
- ▪The phrase "Let's Go Brandon" became a widely recognized right-wing code and euphemism for "F**k Joe Biden" to express opposition to the Joe Biden administration
- ▪The phrase "Let's Go Brandon" originated at a NASCAR race in 2021 when a reporter interviewing driver Brandon Brown suggested a crowd chanting a vulgarity about Joe Biden was instead cheering the driver
The Tinker precedent
- ▪In the Tinker v. Des Moines case, the Supreme Court permitted public school students to wear black armbands in protest of the Vietnam War
- ▪The landmark 1969 Supreme Court ruling in Tinker v. Des Moines established that public school students do not lose their First Amendment rights at school, though schools may prohibit speech that disrupts classrooms
Other student speech cases
- ▪An 8-1 Supreme Court ruled in favor of a Pennsylvania high school cheerleader punished for posting a profanity-laced Snapchat caption off school grounds
- ▪The Supreme Court has recently declined other school clothing appeals, including a Massachusetts case involving a "There are only two genders" shirt and a Michigan case involving a hat depicting an AR-style rifle
Debatable claims
- ▪Public schools should be permitted to ban student apparel featuring coded vulgarity
- ▪Enforcing political civility is an appropriate role for public school administrators
- ▪The Tinker standard is no longer sufficient to regulate modern student political speech
- ▪The Supreme Court's refusal to hear the 'Let's Go Brandon' case leaves student speech rights dangerously unclear
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