A federal appeals court will not reconsider a unanimous February ruling upholding the actions of a principal in a Northern California high school who ordered students wearing American flag shirts inside out during a 2010 Cinco de Mayo celebration.

Live Oak High School in the San Jose suburb of Morgan Hill had a prior history of problems between white and Latino students.

Parents and a few lawmakers had argued that the actions violated the students’ Constitutional right to free speech.

In the original ruling, a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decided that past problems at the school gave officials sufficient and justifiable reasons for the order. In its opinion, the court said that schools in general have wide latitude in curbing certain civil rights to ensure campus safety.

On Wednesday, the Circuit Court of Appeals announced that a majority of its 29 judges had voted against rehearing the case.

In 2009, a group of Mexican-American students waved a Mexican flag around the Live Oak campus.

Some non-Hispanic students then raised the American flag on a tree, and the two groups exchanged profanity-laced threats.

The next year, after the principal issued the order for students wearing Stars and Stripes shirts to turn them inside-out or go home with an excused absence, the incident garnered national attention as many expressed outrage that students were barred from wearing patriotic clothing.

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