Seventh Circuit Reinstates Lawsuit Over School Ban on T-Shirts That Depict Guns,
From N.J. v. Sonnabend, decided today by the Seventh Circuit (Judge Diane Sykes, joined by Judges Kenneth Ripple and Amy St. Eve):
The plaintiffs are two teenagers who attend Wisconsin public schools. Both are gun enthusiasts and supporters of the Second Amendment. To express that support, they own and wear T-shirts that communicate their favorable opinion of the right to bear arms. When they wore those shirts to school, however, they got into trouble with school officials.
In February 2020 when plaintiff N.J. was in seventh grade at Shattuck Middle School in Neenah, he went to school wearing a T-shirt displaying a Smith & Wesson logo. The logo included an image of a revolver. Around the same time, A.L., a student at Kettle Moraine High School in Wales, went to school wearing a T-shirt bearing the logo of Wisconsin Carry, Inc., a gun-rights group. This logo too incorporated an image of a handgun.
Administrators at both schools barred the boys from wearing the shirts, explaining that any clothing depicting firearms is forbidden. Neither school’s dress code expressly bans clothing with images of firearms. Rather, the dress codes prohibit “inappropriate” attire, which the administrators interpreted to bar any clothing with an image of a firearm regardless of whether it conveys support for or opposition to gun rights….
The students argued that their T-shirts weren’t disruptive and thus couldn’t be restricted, given Tinker v. Des Moines Indep. School. Dist. (1969), but the district court held that Tinker didn’t apply to viewpoint-neutral speech restrictions, citing Muller v. Jefferson Lighthouse School (7th Cir. 1996). But on appeal the Seventh Circuit reversed, overruling Muller in relevant part:
[T]he Court has recognized three categories of student speech that may be regulated without regard to the Tinker standard. {The first and perhaps most obvious category is “indecent[,] … vulgar[,] and lewd speech.” Bethel Sch. Dist. No. 403 v. Fraser (1986)…. Second, the Court has held that school officials may regulate
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