Free Republic

The days are fast approaching and Iowans are going to the polls. I endorse the plan to oust the incumbent justices who hold the odd notion that two men can get married to each other. It is equivalent to believing children can bear their own parents. But a few other judges ought to go as well. Recently a district judge in Waterloo, Iowa struck down the decision of a local school board to have a dress code in its school district. These are the kinds of decisions that cause the tea party movement to rise up against judicial encroachments...

Four Live Oak High School teens sent home for wearing American flag T-shirts on Cinco de Mayo have become the focus of national media attention and spurred a march by Hispanic students through downtown Morgan Hill. Live Oak students Daniel Galli, Dominic Maciel, Matt Dariano and Austin Carvalho wore red, white and blue T-shirts - some with the American flag and some with flag shorts - to school Wednesday, prompting administrators to ask the students to change their clothing or turn their T-shirts inside-out because it could incite a confrontation on Cinco de Mayo. The four students' parents were called...

Students Kicked Off Campus for Wearing American Flag Shirts on Cinco De Mayo.. I know this has probably already been posted, but this pissed me off somethin' awful this mornin..and I was having a good day.. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9QlGMuZ8ic You want to fix your country? Start with this kind of nonsense. Video: KNTV San Fransisco Students Kicked Off Campus for Wearing American Flag Tees on Cinco De Mayo On any other day at Live Oak High School in Morgan Hill, Daniel Galli and his four friends would not even be noticed for wearing T-shirts with the American flag. But Cinco de Mayo...

NBC Bay Area On any other day at Live Oak High School in Morgan Hill, Daniel Galli and his four friends would not even be noticed for wearing T-shirts with the American flag. But Cinco de Mayo is not any typical day especially on a campus with a large Mexican American student population. Galli says he and his friends were sitting at a table during brunch break when the vice principal asked two of the boys to remove American flag bandannas that they wearing on their heads and for the others to turn their American flag T-shirts inside out. When...

MORGAN HILL (CBS 5) ― Click to enlarge1 of 1 CBS numSlides of totalImages On Cinco de Mayo, five Morgan Hill high school students came to school in red, white and blue, and got a very public lesson in school politics and free speech. The boys came to Live Oak High School on the Mexican holiday, wearing t-shirts, shorts and shoes emblazoned with American flags. Around 10 a.m., the assistant principal told sophomore Matthew Dariano he had to remove his bandana, which is against school policy.

Five Morgan Hill students sent home for wearing American flag T-shirts 2:11 PM By Lindsay Bryant Five male students were asked to leave Live Oak High School this morning because they were wearing American flag T-shirts on Cinco de Mayo. Officials at the school could not be reached for comment, but one student said administrators called the T-shirts "incendiary." "They said we were starting a fight, we were fuel to the fire," said Matt Dariano, a sophomore. The five teens were sitting at a table outside during their brunch break around 10:10 a.m. when Assistant Principal Miguel Rodriguez asked two...

LONDON, March 1, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The iconic image of sweet little English school girls in their uniforms could become a thing of the past if the government follows the advice of its new “human rights commission.” Requiring skirts in school uniforms discriminates against school girls who want to be boys, the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), said in a report this week. “Gender-specific” clothes, the EHRC said in its 68-page report on the rights of “transsexuals” this week, could be discriminatory. “Pupils born female with gender dysphoria experienced great discomfort being forced to wear stereotypical girls’ clothes –...

Student sues for right to wear pro-life shirt OneNewsNow - 10/15/2009 6:40:00 AM A Pennsylvania boy is in a legal battle with his school over his pro-life T-shirt. The boy, a student of Crossroads Middle School in Lewisberry, decided to share his pro-life views with his classmates on the same day in early September that President Barack Obama addressed students nationwide. David Cortman, senior counsel with Alliance Defense Fund, explains what happened to his client. "[H]e wore a T-shirt on that day basically stating that abortion is not healthcare -- and based on the school district's policies, he was made...

A Christian middle-school student is suing his school district after a principal ordered him to remove a T-shirt bearing the message "Abortion is not health care" on the day of President Obama's speech to schoolchildren. Alliance Defense Fund attorneys filed a lawsuit in federal court against the West Shore School District in Lewisberry, Pa., Oct. 5 on behalf of a male, Christian middle-school student identified as E.B. The boy's parents, identified as the Boyers, said they were concerned about the president's speech and the national health-care debate, including reported funding of abortion within proposed legislation. "[T]he Boyers, like many others,...

On the first day of school last year, 17 girls from Roosevelt Middle School were sent home because their "booty shorts" left little to the imagination. The boys are another story. Boys are "sagging," their jeans so low that whoever is watching can see the brand of underwear. The "sagging" jeans and short-shorts fashion was so bad at Roosevelt that Principal Linda Roundtree instituted a dress code for this school year. But Roosevelt is not alone; nearly two dozen Milwaukee Public Schools have some type of dress code. Roundtree told me that the parents love it because it's a lot...

The mother of a California seventh-grader forced to remove her pro-life T-shirt is suing school administrators, claiming that her daughter's First Amendment rights were violated. Anna Amador says the principal at McSwain Elementary School, a K-8 school in Merced, Calif. ordered her daughter to take off the T-shirt she wore to school on "National Pro-Life T-Shirt Day" in April 2008. The shirt displays two graphic photos of a fetus in the womb with the word "growing" under the images. A third box is black, and features the word "gone." The complaint alleges that school principal Terrie Rohrer, assistant principal C.W....

American Life League A California mom says her public school administrators violated her daughter's First Amendment rights when they ordered the seventh-grader to take off her pro-life T-shirt. Anna Amador has gone to court on behalf of her daughter, who she says was ordered by her principal to change her shirt on "National Pro-Life T-Shirt Day." The shirt the girl was wearing displays two graphic pictures of a fetus growing in the womb. The incident occurred in April 2008 at McSwain Elementary School, a K-8 school in Merced, Calif. Amador alleges in her legal complaint that school Principal Terrie Rohrer,...

A California mom says her public school administrators violated her daughter's First Amendment rights when they ordered the seventh-grader to take off her pro-life T-shirt. Anna Amador has gone to court on behalf of her daughter, who she says was ordered by her principal to change her shirt on "National Pro-Life T-Shirt Day." The shirt the girl was wearing displays two graphic pictures of a fetus growing in the womb. The incident occurred in April 2008 at McSwain Elementary School, a K-8 school in Merced, Calif. Amador alleges in her legal complaint that school Principal Terrie Rohrer, Assistant Principal C.W....

  I have a suggestion for those in academia who are concerned that women be treated as intellectual equals: Try sexual modesty. Before the lynching party arrives, I hope I will have time to explain.   I have taught at several colleges, one of which has a dress code. To many, a dress code seems old-fashioned at best, a puri-tyrannical breach of our right to freedom of speech at worst. (It should worry us that clothing is considered speech.) But allow me to present two examples -- male and female -- that illustrate how sexual modesty is related to the...

Criminal charges against a junior at Dakota Ridge High School, who wore a T-shirt saying "NOBAMA" before an appearance and speech last fall by Michelle Obama at the school, were dropped Thursday. Blake Benson, 17, was one of three students at the school who chose to "stay and campaign" for Sen. John McCain when Michelle Obama spoke at the school on Nov. 3. At the time of his arrest, Benson was holding a McCain-Palin campaign sign. He was handcuffed and taken to the school's administrative office, said Dan Recht, a Denver lawyer who took the case on behalf of the...

<p>“…the capital flew into a bit of a tizzy when, on his first full day in the White House, President Obama was photographed in the Oval Office without his suit jacket. There was, however, a logical explanation: Mr. Obama, who hates the cold, had cranked up the thermostat.</p>

A federal appeals court ruled that a Missouri school district had the right to suspend a student who wore a cap depicting a Confederate flag. The ruling Friday by the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis said schools may restrict First Amendment rights "in certain limited circumstances." It affirms a lower court ruling from 2007. Bryce Archambo was 14 when he was suspended from Farmington High School in September 2006, after wearing a baseball cap depicting the Confederate flag with the words, "C.S.A. Rebel Pride, 1861." The district said the flag was associated with racism and feared...

<p>“He’s from Hawaii, O.K.?” said Mr. Obama’s senior adviser, David Axelrod, who occupies the small but strategically located office next door to his boss. “He likes it warm. You could grow orchids in there.”</p> <p>Thus did a rule of the George W. Bush administration — coat and tie in the Oval Office at all times — fall by the wayside, only the first of many signs that a more informal culture is growing up in the White House under new management. Mr. Obama promised to bring change to Washington and he has — not just in substance, but in presidential style.</p>

President Barack Obama has brought a more relaxed style to the White House, according to Sheryl Gay Stolberg of the New York Times, among other things going suit coat-less in the Oval Office and allowing others to do the same. Obama critics will probably hold this against him and mark him down as disrespecting the presidency. But the Oval Office is an office after all, even if it is the world's most famous one. At bottom, it is a work space albeit it holds an almost sacred place in the hearts of many Americans. Most Americans probably won't begrudge Obama...

The capital flew into a bit of a tizzy when, on his first full day in the White House, President Obama was photographed in the Oval Office without his suit jacket. There was, however, a logical explanation: Mr. Obama, who hates the cold, had cranked up the thermostat. “He’s from Hawaii, O.K.?” said Mr. Obama’s senior adviser, David Axelrod, who occupies the small but strategically located office next door to his boss. “He likes it warm. You could grow orchids in there.” Thus did an ironclad rule of the George W. Bush administration — coat and tie in the Oval...

White House Unbuttons Formal Dress Code By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG January 28, 2009 WASHINGTON — The capital flew into a bit of a tizzy when, on his first full day in the White House, President Obama was photographed in the Oval Office without his suit jacket. There was, however, a logical explanation: Mr. Obama, who hates the cold, had cranked up the thermostat. Mr. Obama has exhibited a relatively informal working relationship with aides like his staff secretary, Lisa Brown. “He’s from Hawaii, O.K.?” said Mr. Obama’s senior adviser, David Axelrod, who occupies the small but strategically located office next...

Pat Buchanan has seen many a president move through the Oval Office, but never one dressed the way Pres. Obama was yesterday. On today’s Morning Joe, Buchanan reacted to a photo on the front page of the Wall Street Journal. MIKA BRZEZINSKI: Pat, you took note of the front page of the Wall Street Journal. Something doesn’t seem right to you. JOE SCARBOROUGH: Pat, you’re a little concerned. BRZEZINSKI: He’s very concerned. Pat, I’m going to hold it up. PAT BUCHANAN: I’m surprised. BRZEZINSKI: You’re surprised? BUCHANAN: Yeah. In the Oval Office, the President of the United States. I have...

<p>It's the same Oval Office. The same desk. Even the same curtains. But President Obama has already made one major change: Go through eight years of White House photos, and you won't find one of former President Bush in the Oval Office without his jacket on.</p>

Patriotic helmet needs to go, Newton Fire Chief says By Ben Terris, Globe Correspondent A veteran of the Iraq War, Richard Busa is used to fighting for the American flag. But never quite like this. After more than three years of rushing into fires with his signature red, white and blue helmet, the Newton firefighter has been told to paint it black. Newton Fire Chief Joseph LaCroix wants the patriotic decoration gone, saying it does not conform to the department's rules.

The item of jewellery owned by Kioni Lansbury represents her intention to stay a virgin until she marries. But her school has deemed it potentially dangerous and against uniform rules. Kioni, who is a regular church-goer, was inspired to wear the ring by the American pop group the Jonas Brothers, who have all made pledges of celibacy. Purity rings are popular in America where organisers have persuaded a vast number of teenagers to abstain from sex. Kioni, of Ottery St Mary in Devon, said: 'Lots of girls sleep around. I want to keep myself pure. 'Many of my friends want...

A Native American boy will be allowed to continue wearing his hair in a braid at school, after the superintendent of schools in St. Tammany Parish reversed an earlier decision that the child would have to cut his hair or wear his braid in a bun. Superintendent Gayle Sloan has agreed to let 5-year-old Curtis Harjo adhere to his religious principles and wear his hair in a braid at Florida Avenue Elementary in Slidell, though the practice goes against the School Board's grooming policy with regard to hair length. The American Civil Liberties Union of Louisiana and the Native American...

VOLUSIA COUNTY, Fla. (WOFL FOX 35, Orlando) -- She's only 12 years old but Ashleigh Jones is feeling the heat of this election year. That’s because the seventh grader at New Smyrna Beach Middle School was called a racist by classmates for wearing a pro-Sarah Palin t-shirt. Jones is volunteering at the Republican Headquarters in New Smyrna Beach. The Palin t-shirt was a gift from her fellow volunteers. But when she wore it to school she learned just how tough politics can be. “Some of the students were calling me racist because I was Caucasian,” she said. “I wanted the...

<p>AURORA (MyFOXColorado.com) - An 11-year-old in Aurora says his first amendment rights are being trampled after he was suspended for wearing a homemade shirt that reads "Obama is a terrorist's best friend."</p> <p>The fifth grader at Aurora Frontier K-8 School wore it on a day when students were asked to wear red, white and blue to show their patriotism.</p>

VENTURA, California — The family of a gay teenager who was fatally shot in class blames the school district for allowing their son to wear makeup and feminine clothing to school — factors the family claims led to the death. The parents and brother of 15-year-old Larry King of Oxnard filed a personal injury claim against the Hueneme school district seeking unspecified damages for not enforcing the dress code, The Ventura County Star reported.

CLINTON, Tenn. — Likening the case to the racial discord of the mid- to late 1950s in Anderson County, county school officials on Thursday night said this week's U.S. federal court hearing over a student's right to wear the Confederate flag symbol is being funded "by outside sources." "Regardless of what you read there's a lot more to it than our enforcement of our dress code," John Burrell, Anderson County Board of Education chairman, said during the county school board's regular monthly meeting. At the meeting's start, Anderson County school board members spent approximately 20 minutes in an executive session...

GONZALES, Texas — Police were called to a school board meeting because of the loud protests of parents upset about a revamped dress code that includes prison-like jumpsuits for kids who don't comply [snip] The school district is implementing a revamped dress code that includes a ban on cargo pants and requires students to wear collared shirts. Those from fifth through 12th grade who don't obey may also be put in prison-style navy blue coveralls the district ordered from Texas Correctional Industries, the industrial arm of prison system. District officials have emphasized that the coveralls are only an option aimed...

Two women claim in a lawsuit that a Michigan McDonald's refused to hire them because they wear the hijab, or Muslim headscarf. Toi Whitfield of Detroit and Quiana Pugh of Dearborn say they were both told by managers at a McDonald's in Dearborn they would have to take off their hijabs to work, the Detroit Free Press reports. They filed a discrimination lawsuit Thursday in Detroit. The Detroit area has one of the biggest Muslim communities in the United States, and the Dearborn McDonald's is one of only two restaurants in the chain that serves halal Chicken McNuggets that meet...

Fast food restaurants have employee dress codes not only for appearances, but for hygiene and safety. With that in mind, this case is sounding a lot like the case of the women wanting to wear Islamic attire in a Midwestern tortilla factory. The local health inspector isn't going to take kindly to long sleeves potentially brushing perishable food, and/or the grill and fryer oil, to say nothing of guidelines for hand-washing (see also: the debate over short sleeves in British hospitals). Then there is the matter of long attire and the potential need to make a quick exit in the...

Lynwood, Illinois - Be careful if you have saggy pants in the south Chicago suburb of Lynwood. Village leaders have passed an ordinance that would levy $25 fines against anyone showing three inches (7.62cm) or more of their underwear in public. The mayor of Lynwood, Eugene Williams, says young men walk around town half-dressed, keeping major retailers and economic development away. The American Civil Liberties Union says the ordinance targets young, black men. Young adults in the village, like 21-year-old Joe Klomes, say the new law infringes on their personal style. He said leaders should instead spend money on making...

N.J. Councilman Starts Crusade Against Saggy PantsPaterson Politician Is Sick And Tired Of The Look And If He Has It His Way, Indecency Fines Will Soon Follow Reporting Christine Sloan Jul 15, 2008 8:08 pm US/Eastern PATERSON, N.J. (CBS) ― Instead of "stick 'em up," it will be more like "pull 'em up" now that fashion police in New Jersey have started a crackdown on baggy pants. It's happening in Paterson, where city officials want to put the kibosh on this form of fashion. Bart Johnson says wearing his pants low in a fashion statement, but one councilman is saying...

FLINT, Mich., June 27 (UPI) -- The new police chief in Flint, Mich., has a new policy on low-riding pants -- those that ride low enough to expose the rear end can lead to arrest. Interim Police Chief David Dicks said that he has been getting a lot of complaints from Flint citizens sick of looking at buttocks, Newhouse News Service reported. "This immoral self-expression goes beyond free speech," Dicks said. "It rises to the crime of indecent exposure/disorderly persons." Dicks said that any police officer who spots someone with pants that hang too low and show too much can...

Most Disney fans can tell you about "The Disney Look," the list of strict grooming standards that must be adhered to by all cast members who work "on-stage" or in view of park guests. Disney is now facing a civil rights class-action lawsuit over those standards. Sukhbir Singh Channa, a practicing Sikh, wears a turban and has a beard and long hair in keeping with his religious beliefs. According to the suit, while a student at the University of South Florida, he was hired by Walt Disney World as a seasonal college musician in October 2005, which involves parade and...

No Fans Baring Chests, Proposed Rule Says Bare Or Painted Chests Would Be Banned From Indoor Sports POSTED: 12:11 pm EDT June 6, 2008 WAUSAU, Wis. -- Keep your shirts on. That's the message to Wisconsin high school sports fans. A proposed rule would bar bare or painted chests from indoor sporting events. The recommendation comes from a committee of the Wisconsin Interscholastic Athletic Association. One official of the group noted that students can't go to class shirtless, so they shouldn't be able go to games that way, either. But 15-year-old Steve Gering doesn't agree. He will be a sophomore...

When I came to this country, I took off my hijab. It wasn't an easy decision. I worried at night that God would punish me for it. That's what I had been taught would happen, and it filled me with fear. I was 27, coming from my home country of Iraq to study in California. I hoped that by taking off the hijab I had been wearing for eight years, I would be able to maintain a low profile. In Baghdad, you keep a low profile to stay alive. But in the United States, I merely wanted not to be...

A 12-year-old 6th-grader in Hutchinson, Minn., committed to an unusually brave mission for the month of April: he intended to wear T-shirts with a pro-life message to his middle school every day for a month. His courage, however, was met with resistance. According to the boy's attorney, his principal and teachers told him "not to wear the T-shirts, publicly singled him out for ridicule in front of his classmates, removed him from class, sent him to the principal's office, forced him to turn his pro-life T-shirt inside out, and threatened him with suspension if he did not stop wearing the...

BLOOMER, Wis. - A new Marine who's graduating from Bloomer High School this month won't be able to wear his military uniform during the commencement ceremony.

Durango High School will allow its highest-performing students to wear white robes at graduation, reversing an earlier decision to require all students to wear red robes. Principal Diane Lashinsky said she had learned "a great deal" from the controversy over graduation robes. Lashinsky decided several months ago that all students would wear red robes at the May 24 graduation ceremony, ending a tradition where students with grade-point averages of 4.0 or greater wear honorary white robes. Lashinsky said she felt the white gowns "diminish the accomplishment and hard work of other graduates by relative comparison." Her decision caused an uproar...

Whitehouse, OH (LifeNews.com) -- High school students in a Toledo suburb were threatened with having to skip prom and other senior graduation events if they didn't remove their pro-life T-shirts. A group of students had planned to draw attention to the destruction of human life in abortion until school officials got upset. The students wore matching T-shirts with the message, "Abortion is homicide" but the April 21st coordinated event drew the ire of school administrators.Kristen Norman told WTOL-TV the Anthony Wayne High School students were ready to stand up for their free speech rights until school officials kept adding more...

Security has been increased at a Simpsonville middle school after a student was arrested and suspended for wearing a T-shirt with a noose and a reference to the Ku Klux Klan. Greenville television station WYFF said some students at Bryson Middle School stayed home Friday, fearing violence after the T-shirt worn by an eighth-grader angered both black and white students the day before. The student lifted another shirt revealing the racist T-shirt in the lunchroom. The student has been charged with disturbing school and recommended for expulsion.

LANCASTER, Pa. -- The family of a middle school student who was given detention for wearing a T-shirt bearing the image of a gun has filed a federal freedom of speech lawsuit against the school district. Donald Miller III, 14, went to Penn Manor High School in December wearing a T-shirt he said was intended to honor his uncle, a U.S. Army soldier fighting in Iraq. The shirt bears the image of a military sidearm and on the front pocket says "Volunteer Homeland Security." On the back, over another image of the weapon, are the words "Special issue Resident Lifetime...

PARMA, Ohio -- A kindergarten student with a freshly spiked Mohawk haircut has been suspended by school authorities who said the hair was a distraction for other students. Michelle Barile, the mother of 6-year-old Bryan Ruda, said nothing in the Parma Community School handbook prohibits the haircut, characterized by closely shaved sides with a strip of prominent hair on top. "I understand they have a dress code. I understand he has a uniform. But this is total discrimination," she said. "They can't tell me how I can cut his hair." An administrator at the suburban Cleveland charter school first warned...

A pair of Albany teenagers suspended for "gang-related behavior" because they were wearing crucifixes say they were only wearing gifts from their mothers. Jaime Salazar, 14, his friend Marco Castro, 16, were suspended from South Albany High School recently after they refused to put away the crucifixes they were wearing around their necks. Salazar said Principal Chris Equinoa saw his necklace and told him to put it away. "I was like, why?" Salazar said. "He says it's related to gangs." Salazar said he argued and was sent to the office. Instead, he went home. Later, he received a note saying...

Some students want the school administration to ban the Confederate battle flag outright, even if its presence is mainly limited at this point to small decals, belt buckles or cell phone screens kept by a small number of students... Senior Megan Allen said she's gotten about 300 of the school's roughly 1,500 students and about 20 teachers to sign her petition calling for school officials to ban the flag on campus,

Attorneys for a Neuqua Valley High School student from Bolingbrook fighting the school's ruling that he cannot wear an anti-gay T-shirt are hoping the third time will be the charm. Twice, Neuqua sophomore Alexander Nuxoll of Bolingbrook has filed for an injunction that would suspend "the school's policy that allows speech in favor of homosexual conduct, but bans speech critical of homosexual conduct," said his attorney, the Alliance Defense Fund's Jonathan Scruggs. And twice now courts have denied that request. Now, Nuxoll and his legal counsel are set to seek an appeal of these decisions. "We hope to have an...

ANDERSON, Ind. -- A couple whose lawsuit challenging a school district's new dress code was rejected has been ordered by a federal judge to pay nearly $41,000 in court costs. Laura and Scott Bell's lawsuit was thrown out by U.S. District Judge John D. Tinder in August after the couple missed critical deadlines and pressed claims he deemed frivolous. Now, Tinder has ordered the couple to pay Anderson Community Schools the $40,931 the district says its law firm charged for defending the couple's lawsuit in July and August. "It's flat ridiculous," said Laura Bell, noting that the amount is more...