The Supreme Court quietly declined to hear a new case, involving a San Francisco-area high school, who banned students from wearing an American flag t-shirt on Cinco de Mayo.
Back on May 5, 2010–Cinco de Mayo–staff members at Live Oak High School in Morgan Hill, California, told several students that they had to change out of patriotic-colored clothing, because it could incite violence–apparently from the school’s Hispanic population. Some students refused–with two even choosing to return home, rather than turn their shirts inside-out.
Live Oak High School struggled with gang tensions, which tended to break down by race: white vs. Hispanic. They feared that, by wearing patriotic clothing during an event celebrating a Mexican holiday, Cinco de Mayo, they would be exacerbating those racial tensions.
The parents of three affected students–Daniel Galli, Matt Dariano, and Dominic Maciel–filed the lawsuit on their behalf.
Their lawyers argued that Live Oak High School violated their free speech–by censoring their clothing.
But the notoriously liberal 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, based in San Francisco, ruled against them, deciding that Live Oak High School authorities acting out of legitimate concerns of violence.
Earlier this week, the Supreme Court essentially agreed. By refusing to hear this case, the 9th Circuit Court decision stands as the official ruling in the case.
This case represents the worst of liberalism: the idea that American imagery, like our flag, should be censored as to not “offend.”
Last month, student government members at University of California-Irvine tried to ban the flag from their (taxpayer-funded) office–but, after nationwide outcry, were overruled by university officials. Their logic was that the flag is “divisive” and reminds minority students of “colonialism.”
At both UC-Irvine and Live Oak High School, none of the alleged “victims” of the American flag complained before the ban.