A federal appeals court panel ruled on Thursday that managers of a Twin Cities Home Depot store acted lawfully when they banned an employee from writing a Black Lives Matter slogan on their uniform.

Caro Linda Bo, 33, started working at one of the retailer’s Twin Cities locations in August 2020, three months after Minneapolis police killed George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man, bringing new urgency to the Black Lives Matter movement.

Soon after they were hired, Bo joined with other employees in writing “BLM” in black marker on their orange aprons, the store’s uniform. Bo couldn’t be reached for comment. But according to court documents, Bo testified that they did it to be approachable to customers and as a “symbol of solidarity” against “prejudice and racism.”

While the nation was in th

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