Over on Free Dartmouth (from what?), left-wing loony Tim Waligore mentions this story on a high school student in Michigan who was told to take off a t-shirt with a picture of Bush that said “international terrorist.” Sadly, Tim, this sort of thing may not have the sort of constitutional protection it should; for years, the courts have consistently rescinded the rights of young people, almost to the point where they have free expression rights only at the whim of school administrators. It really is an outrage. Mind you, this isn’t just my opinion; this is also the opinion of Greg Lukianoff, FIRE’s legal director and an honest-to-goodness lawyer.
Okay, it’s really only my opinion because Greg says it’s the case… but I trust him. He’s such a nice boy.
By the way, some may have missed the pun in Tim’s title; it refers to a 1969 Supreme Court decision in the case of Tinker v. Des Moines, in which a student’s wearing of a black armband to protest the Vietnam War was declared constitutionally protected expression.
Eugene Volokh seems to think that the t-shirt is constitutional. Let’s just hope the courts agree.
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