School banners are government speech not protected by the First Amendment, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit held Nov. 23 (Mech v. Sch. Bd. of Palm Beach Cty., 2015 BL 384944, 11th Cir., 15-10778, 11/23/15).
A school can therefore remove a banner from its property without violating the banner’s sponsor’s free speech rights, Judge William Pryor wrote for the court.
Here, David Mech—a math tutor and retired “porn star”—applied to hang a banner on school fences to advertise his math tutoring company, The Happy/Fun Math Tutor.
Mech paid a fee and hung banners that complied ...
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