Don't Shoot The Messenger—Student Art Removed, First Amendment Notwithstanding

Last fall we had occasion to address the extent to which public displays of art and attempts at controlling the content of them can run afoul of the First Amendment. In that case, public outrage at artwork submitted by controversial Native American activist Leonard Peltier, who was convicted of murdering in 1975 two FBI agents, led to the removal of Peltier's paintings by the public agency that had organized the exhibition.

A new controversy in Colorado has underscored similar First Amendment concerns. On March 15, an exhibition of high school student art opened at the Wellington Webb Municipal Building in Denver. One tenth grader submitted a painting that has set off a firestorm. The background of the painting shows an American flag, which is peeling away at the center to reveal a Confederate battle flag. On the left of the frame, a figure in a police uniform and a KKK hood points a gun at the figure on the right—a small child of color wearing a hoody, evoking