“Confederate Kids Have No Rights The Courts Are Bound to Respect”

Today Chief Trial Counsel Kirk Lyons of the Southern Legal Resource Center announced that the Supreme Court will not hear a case involving Candice Hardwick, who ten years ago was sent home for wearing a t-shirt to school with a Confederate flag. He is apparently quite upset about the court’s decision given his firm belief that his client has a rock solid case.

I have to say that I am very disappointed that we have been deprived of the opportunity to hear Kirk Lyons argue in front of the highest court in the land. As for precedent, Lyons argues that this “case is a lot like the Dred Scott decision.” He goes on to suggest that, “Confederate kids have no rights the courts are bound to respect.” Oh, what fun.

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17 comments… add one
  • Brad Oct 25, 2013 @ 8:26

    Double clorox!

  • Brad Oct 24, 2013 @ 5:26

    No, the particular quotation of the Dred Scott case is pure dicta. As they taught us in law school, hard cases make bad law.

    Generalizing a little bit, aside from matters where it has to rule (constitutinality of federal law, disagreement in the Appeals Courts on the same point of law, etc.), the Supreme Court tends to grant cert where novel issues are presented. This was not such a case.

    • Andy Hall Oct 24, 2013 @ 9:47

      “The Supreme Court tends to grant cert where novel issues are presented. This was not such a case.”

      Yeah, the legal issue at hand has nothing to do with the Confederate flag per se, but whether or not school have broad latitude to control or restrict student speech/expression. The Supremes have made it clear that they do, so there’s nothing new here.

      Lyons is really just stoking the rage machine of his credulous and resentful supporters, whose understanding of the legal issues involved amount to being certain that anything they disagree with is (1) unconstitutional and (2) somehow, vaguely, violates their “rights.”

      I wonder if, now that she’s an adult and no longer under the oppressive boot heel of school administrators, Ms. Hardwick wears a lot of Confederate flag shirts these days.

  • Marian Latimer Oct 23, 2013 @ 20:18

    Thanks, gentlemen. I had to go take a shower. With Clorox. I live in NC. Lovely. Charming. And I see clicking through some of the links he showed up in Howell, Michigan, (I’m from MI and know Howell relatively well) where the KKK had a pretty strong base and for all I know may very well still have some membership. Yuck. I see he also has some connections to OKC, which was also hatched in my former backyard–sort of–I drove by the Nichols farm everyday on my way to work and was doing obedience at the collie national the month before (badly) in OKC. Sheesh. It really is a small and sad world.

  • Pat Young Oct 23, 2013 @ 11:59

    Just read the SPLC file on Kirk Lyons. What a scary guy. http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/intelligence-files/profiles/kirk-lyons

  • Roger E. Watson Oct 23, 2013 @ 9:09

    Since there are no confederate kids, ergo, they have no rights. Seems like the “supremes” did the right thing. I wonder how big a laugh they got before throwing it in the round file ? Kirk should probably do “stand up”. He is pretty funny.

  • Jennifer Oct 23, 2013 @ 4:24

    “Even the American flag…They’re banning that in the government schools.” Wow, those government schools aren’t doing a very good job of indoctrinating the trapped students if they’re banning their own flag.

  • Brad Oct 23, 2013 @ 3:10

    I’m embarrassed that he’s a fellow member of the Bar, although of course he’s not the first 🙂

    • Kevin Levin Oct 23, 2013 @ 3:14

      So, am I to assume that you don’t recognize Dred Scott as relevant precedent for this particular case?

  • Eric A. Jacobson Oct 22, 2013 @ 18:07

    It’s been a long day and I needed a chuckle. This did the trick. Thanks!!!

    • Kevin Levin Oct 23, 2013 @ 1:06

      Always happy to oblige, Eric. 🙂

  • Marian Latimer Oct 22, 2013 @ 16:46

    OMG, Confederate kids? Where? I thought the Confederacy ended in 1865. And since when is a Confederate minute five and a half minutes long? I quake at the idea of the next generation of these home-schooled Confederate kids. I don’t recall attending a government school either, public school, yes. Government school sounds kind of creepy.

    • Michael Lynch Oct 23, 2013 @ 5:19

      Yeah, people who are terrified of public schools use the term “government schools” because it sounds appropriately sinister. Of course, these are often the same people who support as much localization of government as possible; you’d think local school boards would be the type of public entity they could really get behind. Go figure.

  • Forester Oct 22, 2013 @ 15:40

    Is it even safe to let one’s kid wear a CBF shirt to school? If I were a parent or school administrator, I would advise against it on those grounds. I remember as a child when Power Rangers shirts were banned in elementary school because it was making kids fight. I could see a CBF causing a brawl easily.

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