News

The 5^thCircuit Court of Appeals has ruled in favor of Waxahachie ISD in a First Amendment case involving a “John Edwards for President” t-shirt.In doing so, the court strongly affirmed the authority of school d stricts to adopt dress codes that restrict messages in a content neutral fashion.

The case arose shortly after the district had adopted a new, stricter dress code. The dress code banned almost all messages on t-shirts. Messages were permitted only if they referenced a “campus principal-approved [District] sponsored curricular clubs and organizations, athletic teams, or school ‘spirit’ collared shirts or t-shirts.”When Paul Palmer showed up wearing a t-shirt that said SAN DIEGO, he was told that he was in violation of the dress code.

So Palmer’s parents brought him an alternative t-shirt that read: JOHN EDWARDS FOR PRESIDENT ’08.Hmmmm.This is obviously a political expression by the student—can the school district prohibit him from wearing this shirt?Well, the folks in Waxahachie did so, and thus we get an interesting and important ruling from the 5^th Circuit.

The student argued that previous cases allowed public schools to restrict student free speech only in four areas: 1) speech that is disruptive; 2) speech that is lewd; 3) speech that is school sponsored; and 4) speech that promotes drug use.School officials acknowledged that the Edwards t-shirt fell into none of those categories. Thus young Mr. Palmer argued that this was a simple matter of free speech.

The school district, however, persuaded the court that there is a fifth area in which the school can restrict student speech—regulations that are viewpoint and content neutral.The court held that Waxahachie’s dress code passed that test. The primary test, according to the court, is “whether the government has adopted a regulation of speech because of disagreement with the message it conveys.”If so, the regulation is not “content neutral.” But here, “the District was in no way attempting to suppress any student’s expression through its dress code.”

The court found that the dress code served an important purpose, was unrelated to any effort to suppress student expression, and restricted the student’s First Amendment freedoms only as much as was necessary to further the school’s purpose.In the decision, the court repeatedly expressed the judicial posture of deference to school authorities in connection with rules like this, noting that “the determination of where to draw lines on dress code decisions ‘properly rests with the school board, rather than with the federal courts.’”

The case of Palmer v. Waxahachie ISD was decided by the 5^th Circuit on August 13, 2009—just in time for the new school year!

THIS BREAKING NEWS STORY PROVIDED COURTESY OF WALSH, ANDERSON, BROWN, ALDRIDGE & GALLEGOS, P.C.
VISIT WWW.WALSHANDERSON.COM FOR INFORMATION ON THE FIRM’S MODEL STUDENT DRESS CODE.