CINCINNATI (May 30, 2025) – Today, Firearms Policy Coalition (FPC) announced that attorneys for an FPC-backed student plaintiff filed a petition for rehearing in a lawsuit challenging a Michigan public school’s ban on pro-Second Amendment speech, seeking review from the full Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, a federal appellate court that covers Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky, and Tennessee.
The case, filed in 2022, alleges that officials with Durand (Michigan) Area Schools violated the student’s constitutionally protected rights when school officials prevented her from wearing a pro-Second Amendment hat bearing the text “Come and Take It” as well as an image of an AR-15 rifle to the school’s “hat day.” Earlier this month, a 3-judge panel at the Sixth Circuit issued an opinion in favor of the school.
The petition argues, “On the summary judgment record construed in a light most favorable to [the student], as it must be, school officials based their decision only on their own subjective dislike of guns and on vague speculation about scuffling schoolkids—plainly insufficient to meet their heavy burden under Tinker to show specific and justifiable fear of specific disruption.”
The student, through her father, seeks a legal declaration that wearing the hat in question is constitutionally protected speech and a permanent injunction prohibiting the school officials from restricting her speech so she can wear her pro-Second Amendment hat and peacefully express her views in a manner consistent with the Supreme Court’s decisions on student speech rights.
Said FPC President Brandon Combs, “The 3-judge panel clearly failed to follow the Supreme Court’s binding precedents and refused to uphold this student’s constitutionally protected rights because they disliked the content and viewpoint of her speech. We are pressing this case forward to fix the panel’s grievous error and restore the First Amendment right to peacefully support Second Amendment rights in the Sixth Circuit. Students cannot be forced to abandon their First Amendment right to peacefully speak in favor of other enumerated rights, including the right to keep and bear arms.”
Individuals who want to support this case and FPC’s work to eliminate unconstitutional laws across the United States can join the FPC Grassroots Army at JoinFPC.org.
The student is represented by Eugene Volokh, Michael F. Smith of the Smith Appellate Law Firm, and John R. Monroe of John Monroe Law, P.C. FPC thanks FPC Action Foundation for its strategic support of this FPC Law case.
Key case documents in C.S. v. McCrumb can be viewed at firearmspolicy.org/mccrumb.
About FPC
Firearms Policy Coalition (firearmspolicy.org), a 501(c)4 nonprofit membership organization, exists to create a world of maximal human liberty, defend constitutional rights, advance individual liberty, and restore freedom. We work to achieve our strategic objectives through litigation, research, scholarly publications, amicus briefing, legislative and regulatory action, grassroots activism, education, outreach, and other programs. Our FPC Law program is the nation’s preeminent legal action initiative focused on restoring the right to keep and bear arms throughout the United States. For more on FPC’s lawsuits and other pro-Second Amendment initiatives, follow FPC on X (Twitter), Instagram, and Facebook.
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