No First Amendment Right to Wear Graduation Stole Displaying Star of David, Israeli Flag, U.S. Army Insignia
From Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle in Thursday’s Bar-Levy v. Cruze:
Yaakov Bar-Levy, a senior at West Port High School, moves for a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction allowing him to wear a stole displaying the Star of David, the Israeli flag, and a U.S. Army insignia at his graduation ceremony on May 31, 2025. By denying him permission to don that garment at the school’s event, Bar-Levy alleges that school officials will violate the First and Fourteenth Amendments and that the World Equestrian Center, the site of the graduation, will violate the Civil Rights of Act of 1964.
The Supreme Court has long held that schools may not ordinarily censor speech based on viewpoint. Had the evidence demonstrated viewpoint discrimination or selective enforcement, the equities otherwise favor a preliminary injunction. But Bar-Levy fails to present evidence that the school discriminates based on religion or viewpoint in prohibiting any non-academically earned stoles and honor cords, so he has not shown a substantial likelihood of success on the merits. I therefore deny his motion.
The court concluded that, because the graduation ceremony was “school-sponsored speech” (much like a school “theatrical production”): “Among other things, the school communicates its message celebrating academic achievement by prescribing the academic regalia worn at the ceremony and providing attendees with a bulletin explaining each adornment’s meaning.” The restriction on insignia, the court held, “will with
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