LIVINGSTON MANOR — A federal appeals court has ruled that Livingston Manor Central School District violated a student’s constitutional rights when it suspended him in 2021 for a social media post that referenced the murder of George Floyd. The decision, handed down by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit on October 30, reversed a lower court’s ruling and sent the case back for further review, according to court filings.

At the center of the case is Case Leroy, a high school senior at the time, who, according to court filings, posted a photo to Snapchat showing a friend kneeling on his neck in a pose that mimicked the killing of Floyd by then-Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin. The post was made off-campus and after school hours on April 19, 2021, the same day jury deliberations began in Chauvin’s high-profile murder trial.

The image was captioned “Cops got another.” Though Leroy took the post down within minutes, another student had already taken a screenshot, and it quickly spread across social media, prompting community backlash and protests, according to the court.

In its ruling, the court concluded that the school district overstepped its bounds in punishing Leroy for speech that occurred off-campus and outside school control. Writing for the court, Circuit Judge Barrington D. Parker stated: “He thought his post...was a joke, but he quickly realized others viewed it as racist because it evoked memories of the notorious murder of George Floyd,” according to the court’s opinion.

The judges found that although the post sparked public outcry and on-campus disruption, those consequences did not meet the legal threshold to suppress protected speech. The opinion cited the 2021 U.S. Supreme Court decision Mahanoy Area School District v. B.L., which argues that off-campus speech is entitled to First Amendment protection.

“We conclude that the school’s disciplinary actions violated the First Amendment,” the court wrote, adding that Leroy’s post “lacked any meaningful connection to the school” and that any disruption was not enough to justify the school’s actions.

The school suspended Leroy for five days and banned him from extracurricular activities for the rest of the school year. According to court filings, the superintendent advised him not to return to school the next day for his own safety. The school also held assemblies and implicit bias training after the incident.

However, the court made clear that schools cannot punish students simply because their expression is offensive or unpopular. “If schools can regulate off-campus expression because it upsets other students, they are effectively authorized to prohibit students from expressing unpopular views—in or out of school,” the court said.

Leroy said in court filings he did not realize the image resembled George Floyd’s murder when it was taken. The ruling notes he was lying on the ground checking under a car when another student “came over and knelt on his neck for the picture.” According to the court papers, the other students said they meant for it to look that way.

The district court had first sided with the school, saying the post caused a “substantial disruption” and was not protected speech. The appeals court disagreed, finding that the district failed to prove the off-campus post justified school discipline.

Leroy’s legal team included constitutional scholar Eugene Volokh, who filed an argument as amicus curiae, a Latin term meaning “friend of the court,” describing someone who provides legal input to assist judges.

The case now goes back to district court for the next steps.