Supremes Decline to Give Waxahachie High Student's T-Shirt Its Day in Court

Maybe you remember: Back in September '07, Waxahachie High School student Pete Palmer was called into the principal's office and that, Look, you're all-black look is way too goth for the school's dress code. At which point his dad, Paul, showed up with a replacement tee supporting then-presidential candidate John...

By Robert Wilonsky

January 11, 2010

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Maybe you remember: Back in September '07, Waxahachie High School student Pete Palmer was called into the principal's office and that, Look, you're all-black look is way too goth for the school's dress code. At which point his dad, Paul, showed up with a replacement tee supporting then-presidential candidate John Edwards, even though father and son knew that too wouldn't fly with district administrators. The twosome (Pete's dad is an attorney with Legal Aid of NorthWest Texas) wanted to make a point; hence, the April 2008 federal lawsuit filed in Dallas by Plano-based Liberty Legal Institute, in which they claim the district's policy violates First Amendment rights.

After the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the district's policy last year, they took the case to the U.S. Supreme Court in October. But the Associated Press notes this morning that the Supremes ain't interested: "Without comment Monday, the justices rejected an appeal from a high school senior in suburban Dallas who sued the Waxahachie Independent School District for political censorship."

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