Judge Calls Fifth Circuit Law on Student Speech ‘Dumpster Fire’

A former Texas high school student can move forward with claims that her teacher violated her First Amendment rights by trying to force her to write the Pledge of Allegiance and retaliating against her when she refused.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit on Wednesday denied the teacher’s motion for rehearing en banc, drawing several dissents, including one from Judge Stuart Kyle Duncan, who called the circuit’s law “a dumpster fire.”

“We should have taken this case en banc to put it out,” Duncan said. “Then we could have addressed in a more coherent way how the ...