School can ban U.S. flag shirts for safety

[Dave]

This decision is, put simply, a big stinky pile of crap. Its either you let everyone wear their shirts like normal or no one gets to wear there shirts... or for that matter, celebrate the ethnic holiday. I'm not that surprised with the ruling considering where it came from though, the 9th Circuit Court is infamous for being 'progressive', if this goes to the Supreme Court, I can't imagine them agreeing with the 9th Circuit.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Thursday that officials' concerns of racial violence outweighed students' freedom of expression rights.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A federal appeals court says high school officials in Northern California acted appropriately when they ordered students wearing American flag T-shirts to turn the garments inside out during the Mexican heritage celebration Cinco de Mayo.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Thursday that officials' concerns of racial violence outweighed students' freedom of expression rights.

Administrators feared the American-flag shirts would inflame the passions of Latino students celebrating the Mexican holiday. Live Oak High School in the San Jose suburb of Morgan Hill had a history of problems between white and Latino students on that day.

The unanimous three-judge panel said past problems gave school officials sufficient and justifiable reasons for their actions. The court said schools have wide latitude in curbing certain civil rights to ensure campus safety.

"Our role is not to second-guess the decision to have a Cinco de Mayo celebration or the precautions put in place to avoid violence," Judge M. Margaret McKeown wrote for the panel. The past events "made it reasonable for school officials to proceed as though the threat of a potentially violent disturbance was real," she wrote.

The case garnered national attention as many expressed outrage that students were barred from wearing patriotic clothing. The Ann Arbor, Mich.-based American Freedom Law Center, a politically conservative legal aid foundation, and other similar organizations took up the students' case and sued the high school and the school district.

William Becker, one of the lawyers representing the students, said he plans to ask a special 11-judge panel of the appeals court to rehear the case. Becker said he would appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court if he loses again.

"The 9th Circuit upheld the rights of Mexican students celebrating a holiday of another country over U.S. student proudly supporting this country," Becker said.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/02/27/cinco-de-mayo-...

[XLFD]

This is a dangerous precedent that can extend to other situations where the courts may choose to 'not offend certain groups' and so it could apply to women in Dearborn (a community with a large Islamist population) having to wear burkas so as not to offend the Islamists.  It is self-contradictory:  say wearing a US flag may incite violence from Mexican kids, then holding a Cinco de Mayo celebration may incite violence from patriotic Americans who believe such celebrations need not be held at their school.  Yet we only enforce the Mexican side, as if saying that they cannot control their violent tendencies, but Americans must.  Typical SF court madness.

[Willy]

Your exactly right Dave and X. This was a stupid decision by the school and was upheld by an even more stupid court. How can you deny Americans from wearing patriotic clothing because Mexicans don't like it. What the hell is going on. If American students had made threats aimed at Mexican students the Americans would have been kicked out of school and may have even been arrested. I would like to know how many of the Mexican students are illegals. As it was, they should not have even been in that school. If they were legal why would they not join the American students in wearing clothing celebrating their new Country. These liberal teachers and judges are making a foul mess of our Country.

[Dave]

Seems like I recall reading something in something called the Constitution that people have the right to express themselves here in America... apparently its in only parts where we wont offend others that may or may not be here legally to begin with.