Appeals Court Reinstates First Amendment Protections For Elementary Students In "All Lives Matter" Drawing Case

The 9th Circuit rules that first-graders retain First Amendment rights, overturning a judge's decision in a California "All Lives Matter" drawing case.

By: AXL Media

Published: Mar 12, 2026, 4:35 AM EDT

Source: Information for this report was sourced from Just The News

The Judicial Rejection Of An Age Based Exception

A three judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has unanimously vacated a summary judgment that previously denied First Amendment protections to students in first grade and below. The case originated when a federal judge, David Carter, ruled that very young children lacked constitutional standing in a school setting. The appeals court slammed this interpretation, clarifying that while age is a relevant factor in school discipline, it is not a dispositive one that allows administrators to bypass established Supreme Court precedents regarding nondisruptive expression.

Circumstances Surrounding The Controversial Drawing

The legal battle stems from a 2023 lawsuit filed by Chelsea Boyle on behalf of her daughter, B.B., a first-grade student at Viejo Elementary School in California. Following a lesson on Martin Luther King Jr. that utilized the phrase Black Lives Matter, B.B. created a drawing for a classmate that included the words "Black Lives Mater [sic] any life" alongside an illustration of friends holding hands. Principal Jesus Becerra allegedly scolded the child and forced a public apology, despite the student’s stated intent to convey a message of inclusion for all her friends.

Legal Standards For Schoolhouse Speech

The 9th Circuit invoked the landmark 57 year old Supreme Court ruling in Tinker v. Des Moines, which famously declared that students do not "shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate." The panel emphasized that for a school to curtail such expression, it bears the burden of proving the speech created a reasonable likelihood of material disruption or a substantial disorder. In the case of B.B., the court found no evidence that her drawing interfered with classwork or the rights of other students to be secure and left alone.