Student punished for ‘blasted’ comment wins court battle

After Horry-Georgetown Technical College suspended student Leigha Lemoine in late 2024 for saying another person should be “blasted,” FIRE connected her with attorney David Ashley through FIRE’s Legal Network. This week, a district court in South Carolina sided with her — and the First Amendment. 

The college combined Lemoine’s “blasted” message with an unrelated year-old video of her shooting a gun off campus to accuse Lemoine of making others feel unsafe. The school said Lemoine would be suspended for a full calendar year, and when she re-enrolled, she would remain on disciplinary probation for the remainder of her time at the college. 

FIRE wrote HGTC back then, explaining why Lemoine’s expression was not a true threat, but clearly protected by the First Amendment. The college ignored us. 

So we referred Lemoine’s case to FIRE’s Legal Network, and member David Ashley at Le Clercq Law Firm stepped up to take the case. Ashley obtained an emergency order getting Lemoine back in the classroom in December of 2024, while the court case played out.

Now, the district court has ruled that HGTC violated Lemoine’s First Amendment rights, saying that Lemoine’s “blasted” message was sent while she was off-campus, and that the message “did not arise from school-sponsored activity, did not involve coursework, did not address HGTC personnel, and did not refer to any HGTC campus or event.” 

Further, the court wrote, “The phrase was crude, angry, and capable of causing concern if read literally or in isolation. But the First Amendment does not permit a public college to treat every intemperate or ambiguous phrase as unprotected speech. Context matters.” The court added, “The mere existence of a prior video depicting lawful firearm use transform a separate ambiguous Snapchat message into a serious expression of intent to commit unlawful violence.” The combination of the message and the video also did not transform Lemoine’s expression into an unprotected “true threat.” 

This marks an important victory for the First Amendment rights of college students, and a significant win for FIRE Legal Network attorney Ashley. After two years of litigation, the only thing left thoroughly “blasted” is the school’s theory of the First Amendment.