Sad State Of First Amendment Affairs.

In past years, a high school saw violence on Cinco de Mayo when “Mexican students had been walking around with the Mexican flag,” and other students “hung a makeshift American flag on one of the trees on campus.”  In 2010, during a break, a group of Mexican students asked the assistant principal “why the Caucasian students get to wear their flag out when we don’t get to wear our flag?” In response, the principal directed the students who wore shirts bearing the American flag to “either turn their shirts inside out or take them off.  The students refused to do so.” The American flag-wearing students brought a civil rights suit against the school and officials, alleging violations of their federal and state constitutional rights to freedom of expression.  The federal trial court granted the summary judgment of the assistant principal. The Ninth Circuit noted, “We are asked again to consider the delicate relationship between students’ First Amendment rights and the operational and safety needs of the schools,” and concluded the policy does not violate the students’ rights, affirming summary judgment. (Dariano v. Morgan Hill Unified School District (Ninth Cir.; February 27, 2014) 745 F.3d 354.)