The Supreme Court Will Functionally Decide If You Can Wear Your #MAGA Hat To Vote

[Eliot Rosewater]

https://abovethelaw.com/2018/01/the-supreme-court-will-functionally-decide-if-you-can-wear-your-maga-hat-to-vote/

When was the last time a T-shirt changed the way you voted? Probably never, but the state of Minnesota thinks you’re much more impressionable. It’s so concerned that voters might influence others with their clothing choices that it prohibited wearing items that could be construed as “political” — such as a “Please I.D. Me” button or a “Don’t Tread on Me” T-shirt — from polling places on Election Day. Offenders are subject to civil fines of up to $5,000 and the possibility of criminal charges.

That’s the very opening of the article and you can see that it is fatally flawed in the first sentence. The ban on T-shirts is not because they “change the way” people vote. Nobody is wearing a T-shirt to change somebody’s mind.

Paragraph 1 in excerpt is responded to in paragraph 2, kind of confusing I know, read the article.

[Dave Starsky]

1. If they allow MAGA hats at the polls...

Then wait till they get a load of the Halloween costumes my wife and I will be wearing to vote.

In thinking of myself wearing a Trump mask with a baby bonnet, diaper, and pacifier, and my wife with a big blond wig and stuffed bra as Stormy Daniels.

[Initech]

4. Don't forget the comically oversized red tie!

[ProfessorGAC]

2. I'm Kind of On Board With This

Electioneering is prohibited and any sloganeering would fit the same description to me. If someone can't vote without a clear demonstration of their politics, it seems like blatant electioneering.

Courts may disagree, just my opinion. I know i wouldn't think to do it.

[Gothmog]

3. As an election judge, I have made someone with such a tea shirt go out and turn it inside out

In 2008, the Houston Obama voter protection team circulated a wonderful legal memo on the use of toilet plungers as electioneering. A candidate bought a couple of hundred toilet plungers, put ribbons on them with McCain's name and tried to leave these plungers in the polling places. At the time, Joe the Plumber was big. We got the election officials to agree to ban these plungers as electioneering.

Being an election law/voter protection attorney can be amusing.

[MineralMan]

5. Almost everyone owns clothing that doesn't bear slogans.

Clearly, people who wear clothing with political slogans to the polling place have it in mind to expose their message to other voters. So, such clothing is electioneering, and is prohibited.

On election day, go and vote. Wear clothing that does not carry a political message. You vote the way you wish. Leave others alone to do the same.

Minnesota is correct.

[PoliticAverse]

6. "Nobody is wearing a T-shirt to change somebodys mind." - Of course people do.

The article author's flawed assertion notwithstanding, the Supreme Court decided a major "electioneering" case in 1992 ( Burson v. Freeman http://mtsu.edu/first-amendment/article/128/burson-v-freeman ) upholding Tennessee's 100 foot restriction.

And no, "Minnesota Voters Alliance v. Manksy" isn't about MAGA hats (which are clearly campaign-related and won't be suddenly allowed by the Supreme Court) but about more subtle speech (as the article notes the specific items in question were the: "Don’t Tread On Me” shirt and — “Please I.D. Me” button).

[Retrograde]

7. Simple - let everyone vote by mail

Then they can wear whatever they want - or even nothing at all. Plus, it leaves a paper record.

[Eliot Rosewater]

8. Well, that sounds good. Step one, vote for ANY Democrat especially those most likely to win

in their district.

NO MATTER WHAT

[crazycatlady]

9. If I voted in person

I'd be so tempted to wear my pussyhat to the polls