Supreme Court passes on ‘Let’s Go Brandon’ student speech case

WASHINGTON − The Supreme Court is staying out of a debate over “Let’s Go Brandon,” rejecting on Oct. 5 a case about whether students have a constitutional right to political speech that is not “plainly profane or lewd.”

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“Let’s Go Brandon” went viral in 2021 as a euphemism for a vulgar criticism of former President Joe Biden.

In 2022, two Michigan brothers were prevented from wearing to middle school sweatshirts with that phrase that they’d received from their mother for Christmas.

Lawyers for the students who, along with their mother, sued their school district in western Michigan argue the phrase itself is not profane or lewd and, in fact, has become “a staple of political discourse and debate.”

An appeals court ruled in 2025 that school officials had reasonably determined the message was vulgar based on its “commonly understood meaning.”

The family asked the Supreme Court to get involved.

In response, lawyers for Tri County Area Schools warned the court against revisiting its 1986 ruling that schools can prohibit speech that conveys an obscene or vulgar message.

“Almost all lewd speech comes in sanitized code, innuendo, and double meaning,” the school’s lawyers wrote in a filing. “Take the number 69. Although on its face it is just a number innocently falling between 68 and 70, many understand it to refer to a sexual position.”

And what if a student wants to wear a shirt saying, “I don’t know who Brandon is but duck Trump”?

The Supreme Court has not shown an appetite in recent months for reviewing how schools are policing clothing with political messages.

In June, the court rejected an appeal from a Michigan student who was not allowed to wear − for her school’s “Great Kindness Challenge” − a hat featuring an image of an AR-style rifle and the phrase “come and take it.”

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The court likewise passed up a chance last year to decide whether a Massachusetts school erred by banning a T-shirt saying, “There are only two genders.”

Those cases turned on a landmark 1969 decision protecting students’ First Amendment rights as long as the speech isn’t too disruptive.

The 1987 ruling that the “Let’s Go Brandon” lawsuit tested put the thumb on the scale in favor of school administrators’ judgment calls about acceptable language, according to the appeals court judges who backed Tri County Area Schools in the dispute over the sweatshirts.

“And here the uncontroverted origin of the slogan shows a plainly vulgar meaning,” wrote Judge John Nalbandian, who was appointed to the Cincinnati-based 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals by President Donald Trump.

But Judge John K. Bush, who was also appointed by Trump, disagreed, saying his two colleagues who ruled for the school were being too deferential to administrators when it comes to political speech.

Bush said “Let’s Go Brandon” became a “national inside joke” similar to how Wendy’s 1984 ad slogan “Where’s the Beef?” was co-opted to by Vice President Walter Mondale to suggest a political opponent, Gary Hart, lacked substance.

“‘Let’s Go Brandon!’ just cheekily expressed criticism of a president’s leadership capabilities,” Bush wrote in his dissent.

He said it was up to the Supreme Court to “ultimately clarify, and ideally limit,” the court’s 1986 ruling about suggestive speech at school.

The court declined to revisit that ruling.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Supreme Court passes on ‘Let’s Go Brandon’ student speech case

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Reporting by Maureen Groppe, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect

Copyright Reuters or USA Today Network via Reuters Connect

This story was originally published October 5, 2026 at 9:40 AM.