Supreme Court rejects appeal over 'Let's Go Brandon' sweatshirt ban

The Supreme Court on Tuesday declined to hear an appeal from a Michigan mother who challenged her children's school district's ban on sweatshirts bearing the phrase “Let’s Go Brandon.” The phrase has been widely understood as a coded insult directed at President Joe Biden.

The mother argued that the ban violated her sons’ First Amendment rights when they were instructed to remove the sweatshirts in 2022. Her attorneys contended that school officials were improperly granted broad authority to suppress political speech based on subjective interpretations of vulgarity, noting the phrase itself contains no explicit profanity or sexual connotations.

A lower court had previously sided with the school district. That court determined that the veiled profanity inherent in the phrase, serving as a stand-in for “F— Joe Biden,” provided a sufficient basis for a school ban. The school district urged the Supreme Court to reject the case, maintaining that messages with lewd implications, regardless of political topics, are inappropriate for the educational environment.

The slogan gained traction in 2021 following a NASCAR race. During post-race interviews, a crowd chanted an obscenity directed at Biden, which a sports reporter covering the event characterized as “Let’s Go, Brandon,” apparently in reference to driver Brandon Brown's victory.

The Supreme Court's decision not to take up the case leaves in place the lower court's ruling.