A federal appellate judge, in rejecting the First Amendment arguments of students expelled for making racist Instagram posts, urged the U.S. Supreme Court to reconsider its guidance on when government officials can regulate hate speech.

Judge Ronald Gould, of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, wrote a concurrence backing the dismissal of a lawsuit that two California students—Kevin Chen and Cedric Epple—brought against their high school after they were disciplined for posting racist content about their peers on a private Instagram page. The court said the contents of the account, which included posts comparing Black students to gorillas, weren’t constitutionally protected.

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