Update: The ACLU stick to their absolutism, but leave themselves wiggle room:
“It is hard to see how this t-shirt could be viewed this way. Students have a constitutional right to express their opinions about politics, and this t-shirt was not vulgar or anything other than a political statement. While the courts have recently cut back on student’s rights of expression, this case clearly seems to be an illegal curtailment of this student’s rights. ”
The wiggle room is because the school is claiming the shirt caused a disruption, and that isn’t hard to believe.
The father of an Aurora fifth-grader said Monday he plans to sue after school officials suspended the youth last week when he wouldn’t remove a home-made T-shirt reading “Obama a terrorist’s best friend.”
“It’s the public school system,” Dann Dalton told Fox31 News, “let’s be honest, it’s full of liberal loons.”
Eleven-year-old Daxx Dalton wore the crudely handwritten shirt the day Aurora Frontier K-8 students were urged to wear red, white and blue to express their patriotism. School officials gave him a choice, he said, “switching the shirt, or wearing it inside out, or getting suspended.”
“They’re taking away my right of freedom of speech,” Daxx told Fox31 report Christin Ayers. “If I have the right to wear this shirt, I’m going to use it. And if the only way to use it is get suspended, then I’m going to get suspended.”
his shirt said “Obama is a Terrorist’s Best Friend.” Somehow this true statement, in more ways than one, caused some disruption the school claims. Shocker there… really. I agree with the message, but I agree with the school keeping discipline too, but it’s still a controversial free speech argument. I wonder if the ACLU would break from their usual absolutist opinion or sit on their hands if asked to defend this one, tossing it in the bag of free speech they are against like pro-life free speech. Perhaps this kid should wear less offensive shirts to school, like the one that says Bong Hits 4 Jesus! We know the ACLU would defend that one. Of course they lost that one too though.
Also see Hotair and MM
Wolking World notes irony
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