A Michigan school told two brothers to take off their "Let's Go Brandon" sweatshirts — or face punishment.
The phrase had already aired on the floor of Congress, on national television, and at Trump rallies across the country.
Now those two boys just forced the Supreme Court to answer a question the left does not want asked.
Michigan School Banned a Lets Go Brandon Shirt With Zero Evidence of Disruption
In February 2022, two brothers at Tri County Middle School in Sand Lake, Michigan walked into class wearing hoodies that said "Let's Go Brandon."
Nothing happened.
Their own principal, Joseph Williams, later admitted he was not aware the school had experienced any disruption from students wearing the sweatshirts.
None of that mattered. Administrators ordered the boys to strip off the hoodies anyway.
The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression – FIRE – sued the district in April 2023. A federal judge ruled against the brothers in August 2024. The Sixth Circuit upheld that ruling last October in a 2-1 split. This week, FIRE filed a petition to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Four years. Three courts. Two middle school kids from west Michigan who refused to back down.
Why a School Called Lets Go Brandon a Profanity
In October 2021, Brandon Brown won a NASCAR race at Talladega Superspeedway. While NBC Sports interviewed him on the track, the crowd was loudly chanting something far less polite.
The NBC reporter told Brown they were yelling "Let's go Brandon!" Every American watching knew exactly what the crowd was saying.
Republicans turned it into a rallying cry overnight. Members of Congress used it on the House floor. It aired uncensored on broadcast television and national cable news. Trump started using it at his rallies. It was everywhere – except, apparently, the hallways of Tri County Middle School.
FIRE's petition to the Supreme Court made the obvious point: "Let's Go Brandon" is no different than saying "heck" or "shoot" instead of their obvious counterparts, and schools don't ban those.
The lower courts leaned on Bethel School District v. Fraser – a 1986 case where a student delivered a speech to 600 classmates loaded with graphic sexual references. That is the precedent they used to silence two boys wearing a political slogan their president had used publicly and repeatedly.
That is not a legal argument. That is viewpoint discrimination with a dress code attached.
What the Supreme Court Already Said About This
The brothers' case sits in direct collision with Tinker v. Des Moines – the 1969 landmark where the Supreme Court ruled that students do not shed their constitutional rights at the schoolhouse gate.
In Tinker, the Court threw out a school district's ban on black armbands worn to protest the Vietnam War – because administrators couldn't show the armbands caused any substantial disruption.
Their own principal admitted it. Zero disruption. The Tinker test is not close here.
The most dangerous part of the lower court rulings is not what happened to these two brothers. It's what those rulings allow going forward. FIRE's petition warned that under the Sixth Circuit's logic, individual teachers can now set their own definition of "vulgar" — meaning, as the petition put it, that a political shirt could have First Amendment protection in one class period and not the next.
That is not a legal standard. That is a blank check for punishing conservative kids whenever an administrator finds their message offensive.
FIRE attorney Conor Fitzpatrick said the school's censorship assumes students cannot handle seeing even sanitized expressions. He's right. The Supreme Court should say so loudly.
If expressing political disagreement with a president – without using a single actual profanity – can be punished as vulgarity by any administrator who finds it offensive, then student political speech is only protected when the school agrees with it.
Two kids from Sand Lake, Michigan just gave the Supreme Court a chance to fix that. Let's hope the Court takes it.
Sources:
- Conor Fitzpatrick, "Students Forced to Remove 'Let's Go Brandon' Sweatshirts Seek Supreme Court Review," FIRE, March 26, 2026.
- FIRE, "D.A. v. Tri County Area Schools: School District Forces Students to Remove 'Let's Go Brandon' Sweatshirts," fire.org, March 26, 2026.
- Dave Huber, "Middle-Schoolers' 'Let's Go Brandon' Sweatshirt Case Goes To Supreme Court," The College Fix, March 28, 2026.
- Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District, 393 U.S. 503 (1969).
- Bethel School District No. 403 v. Fraser, 478 U.S. 675 (1986).
