WASHINGTON, March 10 (UPI) -- The U.S. Supreme Court said Monday it would not hear a Pennsylvania school district's appeal of a free speech case involving "I (heart) boobies" bracelets.

In denying the case, which involves two Easton, Pa., middle school students banned from, and later punished by school administrators for, wearing bracelets in school meant to raise breast cancer awareness, the court effectively ended the legal fight and gave the victory to the students.


Had it accepted the case, the Easton case would have joined a list of historic decisions about public school dress codes and constitutional rights of minors, the Constitution Daily, a publication of Philadelphia's National Constitution Center history museum, said Monday.

The students, through their mothers, sued the school after they were not allowed to wear the popular bracelets at school. The district court and a federal appeals court ruled in favor of the students. When the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia heard the case, nine judges sided with the students and five with the school.

The school district spent $107,000 pursuing the case in court, mostly paid by an insurance policy, the Easton Express-Times reported last week.