Federal district court upholds school officials’ Cinco de Mayo Day ban on students’ American flag T-shirts

Dariano v. Morgan Hill Unified Sch. Dist., ___F.Supp.2d____ (N.D. Cal. Nov/ 8, 2011), is an interesting case. A lower court has granted an assistant high school principal’s motion for summary judgment, dismissing the free speech, equal protection and due process claims of students whom he prohibited from wearing T-shirts displaying the American flag on Cinco de Mayo Day. The claims against the principal were stayed because he had filed for bankruptcy. The court also dismissed all the claims against the school district on the ground that it was entitled to Eleventh Amendment sovereign immunity from the suit.

Mitchell H. Rubinstein