Not safe to display American flag in American high school

From Eugene Volokh of the Volokh Conspiracy at the Washington Post:

Today’s Dariano v. Morgan Hill Unified School Dist. (9th Cir. Feb. 27, 2014) upholds a California high school’s decision to forbid students from wearing American flag T-shirts on Cinco de Mayo. (See here and here for more on this case.) The court points out that the rights of students in public high schools are limited — under the Supreme Court’s decision in Tinker v. Des Moines Indep. Comm. School Dist. (1969), student speech could be restricted if “school authorities [can reasonably] forecast substantial disruption of or material interference with school activities” stemming from the speech. And on the facts of this case, the court concludes, there was reason to think that the wearing of the T-shirts would lead to disruption. There had been threats of racial violence aimed at students who wore such shirts the year before .....................

This is a classic “heckler’s veto” — thugs threatening to attack the speaker, and government officials suppressing the speech to prevent such violence. “Heckler’s vetoes” are generally not allowed under First Amendment law; the government should generally protect the speaker and threaten to arrest the thugs, not suppress the speaker’s speech. But under Tinker‘s “forecast substantial disruption” test, such a heckler’s veto is indeed allowed.

This Court decision basically ratifies bad behavior and rewards it. It only encourages more bad behavior. Would the Ninth Circuit uphold a heckler’s veto if students wearing rainbow tee-shirts were being threatened? How about if students wearing Mexican flags were being threatened by Caucasians?

I have a suggestion, ban the Mexican Flag on Cinco De Mayo, as well. If you can't wear American Flags, you shouldn't be able to wear Mexican ones either.