COURT RULES FIRST GRADERS HAVE FIRST AMENDMENT RIGHTS IN BLACK LIVES MATTER DISPUTE

A federal appeals court has ruled that First Amendment free speech rights apply all the way down to first-graders, as the judges weighed in on a tricky case involving a student who wrote a note to a Black classmate trying to say “all lives matter.”The girl said the school principal deemed the note racist and inappropriate and gave her a talking to, ordering her to stop giving notes to classmates. The youngster said she faced a two-week ban on recess.

The parents of the 7-year-old, identified in court documents as BB, filed a lawsuit. They lost in the lower court when a federal district judge tossed their lawsuit, saying the First Amendment didn’t apply to students so young.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said Tuesday that first-graders do, in fact, have some free speech rights. The appeals court sent the case back for more arguments to determine what happened and whether the school crossed any lines.  “In sum, elementary students’ speech is protected by the First Amendment,” the three-judge panel said in an unsigned opinion. The judges included two Biden picks and one George W. Bush appointee. MORE AT Court rules first graders have First Amendment rights in Black Lives Matter dispute