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 hear the case en banc (by the full court), reverse the three-judge panel’s ill-advised decision, and tell Tri County Area Schools that their students’ political speech—even when expressed on a Let’s Go Brandon shirt—is protected by the First Amendment.

“The First Amendment was written to protect political speech first and foremost,” said David C. Tryon, director of litigation at The Buckeye Institute. “But if the three-judge panel’s misguided decision is allowed to stand, it will stifle the political speech of students in Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, and Tennessee, and give principals and administrators near carte blanche authority to censor speech they don’t like.”

In its brief, The Buckeye Institute argues that an en banc review of the three-judge panel’s decision is necessary given the “precedent-setting error” at stake in the case, namely, restricting the political speech of students. Buckeye further argues that a student wearing a Let’s Go Brandon 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. 

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