First Amendment and 1st Grade: 9th Circuit rules on student speech

‘Black Lives Matter’ painted on street leading to the White House

The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of an elementary school student’s First Amendment rights after she was punished for adding the words “any life” to a picture of “Black Lives Matter.”

The student, with the initials B.B., said she added the message while in first grade in 2021, inspired by a lesson on Martin Luther King Jr. She shared the drawing with a friend.

The school principal told her the drawing was inappropriate and punished her...