Supreme Court rejects appeal by US flag-wearing students

The Supreme Court on Monday denied an appeal from former California high school students who were ordered to turn their American flag T-shirts inside out during a 2010 celebration of the Cinco de Mayo holiday at school.

The justices did not comment on the appellate ruling that found school officials had acted appropriately because their concerns about racial violence outweighed students' rights to freedom of expression. Following a string of clashes between whites and Latinos on campus, administrators worried the T-shirts would inflame the passions of Latino students celebrating the Mexican holiday.

Several students were asked to go home, but their parents later helped them file a lawsuit for alleged First Amendment rights violations, reported the Los Angeles Times.

The onetime students at Live Oak High School in Morgan Hill, California, argued that school officials had effectively enforced a "heckler's veto," in which they silenced free speech in order to prevent a possible negative reaction.

John and Mary Beth Tinker, who won a landmark Vietnam-era student speech case at the Supreme Court, supported the California students’ case. The Tinkers were sent home from school in 1965 for wearing black armbands to protest the Vietnam War. In that case, the Supreme Court ruled that minors had the same rights as adults.

Al Jazeera and The Associated Press