{"id":49946,"date":"2016-09-30T11:27:00","date_gmt":"2016-09-30T16:27:00","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2016-09-30T11:27:00","modified_gmt":"2016-09-30T16:27:00","slug":"a-federal-judge-holds-that-prohibiting-teachers-in-public-schools-from-wearing-partisan-political-buttons-does-not-violate-the-first-amendment-the-rulings-reasoning-and-why-its-wrong","status":"publish","type":"supreme","link":"https:\/\/supreme.findlaw.com\/legal-commentary\/a-federal-judge-holds-that-prohibiting-teachers-in-public-schools-from-wearing-partisan-political-buttons-does-not-violate-the-first-amendment-the-rulings-reasoning-and-why-its-wrong.html","title":{"rendered":"A Federal Judge Holds that Prohibiting Teachers In Public Schools From Wearing Partisan Political Buttons Does Not Violate the First Amendment: The Ruling’s Reasoning and Why It’s Wrong"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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A Federal Judge Holds that Prohibiting Teachers In Public Schools From Wearing Partisan Political Buttons Does Not Violate the First Amendment: The Ruling’s Reasoning and Why It’s Wrong<\/h1><\/td>\n <\/tr>\n

By JULIE HILDEN <\/h2>
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Monday, Oct. 27, 2008<\/td>\n\n <\/tr>\n <\/table>\n\n\n\n\n

On October 17, Judge Lewis Kaplan of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York ruled that<\/a> public school teachers do not have a First Amendment right to wear political buttons while on school property. <\/p>\n\n

In this column, I will argue that the decision was wrong – but it was wrong in part because wrongheaded Supreme Court precedent led the rightly well-respected Judge Kaplan into error. <\/p>\n\n

I’ll also contrast the issues here with those raised by voters’ wearing political buttons in polling places – a hot-button issue in Election 2008, and one that I discussed in an earlier column<\/a> this month.<\/p>\n<\/span>\n\n \n

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