Overview
- Vacating a lower court’s summary judgment, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that elementary students’ speech is protected and must be assessed under Tinker’s disruption test.
- The panel remanded B. B. v. Capistrano Unified School District to resolve disputed facts about whether the first grader was actually punished for her drawing.
- The court noted the First Amendment claim will fail if later proceedings determine no punishment occurred, placing outcome significance on the factual record.
- The opinion aligns the 9th Circuit with four other federal appeals courts that have applied Tinker to younger students, while emphasizing age as a relevant but not dispositive factor.
- According to filings, the child’s 2021 drawing said “Black Lives Mater” and “any life” and was thanked by the recipient; the principal and district deny calling it racist or imposing a recess ban, as alleged by the family represented by the Pacific Legal Foundation.