Deadline Legal Blog-Trump appointees split on decision approving school ban for 'Let's Go Brandon' shirts

[LetMyPeopleVote]

A mother gave her two middle-school sons sweatshirts bearing the anti-Biden message as Christmas presents. She pressed a First Amendment appeal.

Trump appointees split on decision approving school ban for ‘Let’s Go Brandon’ shirts www.msnbc.com/deadline-whi...

— Margie (@paeznyc.bsky.social) 2025-10-16T20:37:36.795Z

https://www.msnbc.com/deadline-white-house/deadline-legal-blog/lets-go-brandon-school-ban-trump-appointees-split-rcna237998

A divided federal appellate panel approved a ban on Michigan middle schoolers wearing “Let’s Go Brandon” sweatshirts to school. The panel rejected a First Amendment appeal and said the school district reasonably understood the slogan to be vulgar, over dissent that said the majority failed to properly weigh court precedent and the message’s political significance.

The decision split two Trump appointees on the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, with Judge John Nalbandian writing the majority opinion and Judge John Bush dissenting......

The court case stemmed from a woman who gave her sons “Let’s Go Brandon” sweatshirts for Christmas. When the two brothers wore them to Tri County Middle School in Howard City, Michigan, officials told them to take them off, reasoning that the phrase “means the F-word” and has a “profane double meaning,” Nalbandian wrote in the opinion. The dress code prohibited clothing with “with messages or illustrations that are lewd, indecent, vulgar, or profane.”

Through their mother, the brothers sued the school and the federal district court rejected them. The 6th Circuit panel majority agreed with the district court that the students’ rights weren’t violated and that school officials’ actions complied with the First Amendment.

“In the schoolhouse, vulgarity trumps politics,” Nalbandian wrote, adding that “the protection for political speech doesn’t give a student carte blanche to use vulgarity at school — even when that vulgarity is cloaked in innuendo or euphemism.”

[BeerBarrelPolka]

1. This country is completely fucked up

[markodochartaigh]

2. Does "Let's go, Brandon"

really mean "f off" or have a vulgar meaning? I realize that literally any word or phrase can mean the f word to young people today. But the let's go phrase came from an announcer at a Nascar event and was repurposed to make fun of President Biden. Is it now being used as a vulgar epithet?

[LetMyPeopleVote]

4. I cut out the history of this term

If you read the full article, you will find that it means F#@K Biden

[LetMyPeopleVote]

6. This is from the article cited in the OP

Let's Go Brandon is a really stupid slogan

In October 2021, a professional NASCAR driver named Brandon Brown won his first major race at Talladega Superspeedway in Alabama. While a reporter was interviewing him, the crowd began to audibly chant “Fuck Joe Biden.”

The reporter interjected, “You can hear the chants from the crowd, ‘Let’s Go Brandon.’”

Nalbandian noted that the clear disconnect between what the crowd was chanting and what the reporter said led to the phrase “Let’s Go Brandon” becoming “for lack of a better term, a meme.”

[Oeditpus Rex]

7. Not to about 90 percent of middle-schoolers

Or, so I'd wager. Thirteen- and 14-year-olds plugged into politics? Hard to imagine.

[MichMan]

3. There is a Brandon school district in Michigan

According to this ruling, if they were playing in a football game against Tri County and wore Let's Go Brandon shirts, or were the parents of a player named Brandon, Tri County school district would be legally allowed to refuse them entry to the game for displaying a vulgar message.

[Oeditpus Rex]

8. There'd be an exception there

Like, I used to live in a California town called Hollister -- the namesake of Hollister clothing, for some reason (there wasn't a damned thing cool about it at all).

The clothing company actually sued the city to keep the name "Hollister" off all school clothing and gear, and won some concession (I forget what). I can't begin to imagine how a court could let that happen.

[kacekwl]

5. Let them wear the shirts.

They might as well both be wearing I'm with stupid shirts pointing at each other.