How a Science Teacher’s MAGA Hat Led to a Viral Court Case

Eric Dodge, a science teacher decided to wear a hat. “Make America Great Again” hat to a teacher training, he probably didn’t expect to wind up defending his constitutional rights years later before a federal appeals court. But that’s what happened — and the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals
Just vindicated his freedom of speech rights

Here’s the
Backstory
. Dodge was a Washington teacher since the 1970s. In advance of the 2019-2020 school year, he was required to attend a teachers’ training focused on diversity and inclusion. He brought a red MAGA cap with him, wore it outdoors, and displayed it along with his personal belongings during the training.

MAGA HAT TEACHER TO SCHOOL PROTECTED BY FIRST EDITMENT, COURT REGULATIONS

Later, the instructor complained that she felt uncomfortable. “intimidated and traumatized” by the hat and several teachers were upset about it with one crying and another feeling it. “threatening.” However, you are the judge
Notes
: “There is no allegation that Dodge did anything with his hat during the training other than place it near him with his other things, nor is there any allegation that he did anything to interfere with or disrupt the training.”

Principal Caroline Garrett reprimanded Dodge and instructed him not to wear it again. He didn’t comply and brought the hat to another day of training. Garrett threatened him with adverse employment consequences for continuing to wear the hat and told him that he would have to bring his union representative next time they discuss this.

Garrett sued and claimed that all of this violated his First Amendment rights. The court agreed last month.

“While some of the training attendees may have been outraged or offended by plaintiff’s political expression, no evidence of actual or tangible disruption to school operations had been presented,” Judge Danielle J. Forrest
Write
. “That some may not like the political message being conveyed is par for the course and cannot itself be a basis for finding disruption of a kind that outweighs the speaker’s First Amendment rights.”

The judge also pointed to the obvious double standard at school. Garrett allowed a “Black Lives Matter” School will display your post
Political
message reaching students and not only staff). She dismissed the concern expressed by a teacher, who was married to an officer and found the message disturbing. Garrett proudly displayed a bumper stickers supporting Sen. Bernie Sanders (I VT) on her vehicle on school grounds.

But that’s different, she insists, because she Likes Those are my opinions.

“While the Black Lives Matter poster is a symbol of cultural acceptance and inclusivity … Mr. Dodge’s MAGA hat is a symbol commonly associated with white supremacy and other anti-immigrant sentiments,” she

. “Comparing an innocuous bumper sticker and a racially supportive poster to the MAGA hat is troglodytic and unacquainted with the affairs of the world.”

This is, however, a subjective interpretation of the symbolism behind a MAGA Hat (and in my view, an absurd one). Countless Republicans would say that a MAGA hat doesn’t mean any of that to them and that they aren’t endorsing “white supremacy” You won’t be able to live with it. And many other people might find Garrett’s left-leaning political messages deeply offensive on the issues of abortion, police lives, and more. Some might argue that Sanders stickers are a symbol for the mass murder of unborn babies and socialist authoritarianism.
100 million people killed
.

But this school gave in to the tyranny and feelings. Instead of telling those who felt it, he decided to do the opposite. “traumatized” Oder “threatened” by a hat to seek professional help and work on their emotional frailty to bring their functionality up to adult level, it enabled a heckler’s veto that would undermine free speech for all. For the same reasons, a pro-Biden-loving teacher could see their hat censored in a more conservative region. Are these the ideal worlds they want to live in? Where your speech is subject to the opinions of those around you?

Yes, teachers don’t have unlimited rights to subject their Students to political messages. However, their First Amendment rights are available to them in relation to staff interactions and other work-related matters, as their employer is the government.

This ruling is a victory for free speech, no matter how much you like or dislike former President Donald Trump.

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Brad Polumbo (
@Brad_Polumbo
) is a co-founder of
Based-Politics.com
Co-host of The Based Politics
podcast
, and Washington Examiner contributor.