Nominal Damages Awarded In "Day of Truth" T-Shirt Case

An Illinois federal district court last week issued yet another decision in the long running litigation against a suburban Chicago school district over its attempt to prevent two Christian students from wearing a T-shirt carrying the slogan "Be Happy, Not Gay" as their participation in "Day of Truth," an event set up to counter the LGBT "Day of Silence" event. In 2008, the 7th Circuit granted a preliminary injunction limited to allowing student Alexander Nuxoll to wear the T-shirt for that year's event. (See prior posting.) Now in Zamecnik v. Indian Prarie School District, 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 42748 (ND IL, April 29, 2010), an Illinois federal district court awarded nominal damages of $25 to Nuxoll and Heidi Zamecnik, a former student, for violation of their free expression rights. The court concluded that school officials had not shown that plaintiffs' wearing of their T-shirts caused a substantial disruption of the educational process. The court also concluded that Nuxoll is entitled to a permanent injunction prohibiting defendants from preventing displays such as the T-shirt message. However, the court said Nuxoll must submit proposed language for the injunctive order to prevent school rules from being overbroad, and ordered the parties to meet to discuss settling the remaining issues in the case.