C1.G. v. Siegfried

On the night of September 13, 2019, C.G., a student at Cherry Creek High School, took a picture of three of his friends in a thrift store while they sported merchandise on their heads, including one hat that (to him) resembled foreign military garb circa WWII. Posting the photo on Snapchat for his circle of friends, C.G. added a caption based on a popular online meme: “Me and the boys bout to exterminate the Jews.” C.G. removed the post and apologized online within a few hours (“I’m sorry for that picture it was ment [sic] to be a joke”), but not before a classmate showed it to her father, who then called the police. Cherry Creek first suspended and then expelled C.G. — all because of a single social media post, made off-campus and after school hours. When C.G. sued the school for violating his First Amendment and due process rights, the district court dismissed the lawsuit. 

FIRE, joined by the Cato Institute, filed an amicus curiae brief in support of C.G.’s appeal in the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit. FIRE argues that several Supreme Court cases, including both the older case Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District and the more recent Mahanoy Area School District v. B.L, all but disarmed K-12 officials from disciplining off campus speech when it is not directed at anyone in particular or otherwise connected to the school. That’s true even when it may make other students feel unpleasant or uncomfortable. FIRE urges the court to side with C.G. and protect our public schools’ place as the “nursery of democracy.” 

On July 6, 2022, the Tenth Circuit ruled in favor of C.G., reinstating his First Amendment and procedural due process claims. FIRE applauds this result and the court’s decisive action to protect student speech.