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 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 the retailer’s location in Northeast Minneapolis in August 2020, three months after Minneapolis police killed 

, 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 the midst of a racial reckoning, another was underway in the store’s break room, where in February 2021, someone twice vandalized a Black History Month display. Later that month, managers of the location on New Brighton Boulevard in Minneapolis fired a woman for engaging in racially discriminatory conduct toward customers and employees of color. 

Bo, who’s Latino, called for a discussion among managers and staff and pressed their bosses to condemn workplace racism. 

But during a meeting with managers, one noticed the letters “BLM” on Bo’s apron and ordered Bo to remove the slogan because it promoted a social or political cause in violation of Home Depot’s dress code. The manager suggested that Bo wear a diversity, equity and inclusion pin instead, or one that said “respect for all.” 

At the time, Home Depot had also prohibited employees from displaying thin blue line flags and other pro-police insignia and slogans. A district manager agreed that allowing “BLM” on employee aprons could open the door to offensive symbols such as swastikas. 

Bo refused to remove the lettering, quit Home Depot, and filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board. In 2022, an administrative law judge sided with the retailer and dismissed the complaint. Then in early 2024 the NLRB reversed that decision, concluding that Bo’s speech was protected by federal labor law because it was related to concerns about workplace racism. 

Home Depot took its case to the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals. At a June hearing in St. Paul, attorney Roman Martinez, arguing on behalf of the retailer, said that Home Depot has the right to regulate what employees write on their uniforms. 

“We want people to come in and think about buying hammers and buying drywall, not to think about controversial political slogans,” Martinez said. “So the interest is in keeping things apolitical and not having messages that are going to inflame customers and that are going to alienate certain customers and turn the aisles of Home Depot into an episode of ‘Crossfire’ or a political rally.” 

NLRB attorney Joel Heller countered that Bo’s Black Lives Matter display was work-related speech protected by the National Labor Relations Act.

“It’s a longstanding and undisputed principle that the NLRA protects employees’ right to jointly protest racial hostility in their workplace and to display insignia or adornments that relate to working conditions.” 

The three-judge panel, which includes appointees of Republican Presidents George H.W. Bush and Donald Trump, disagreed. 

Judge James Loken writes that the BLM slogan “was not a generic message for equal rights or employee protection,” nor did it come at a random location in the United States at a normal moment in time. 

Loken notes that because of “extraordinarily high” community tensions and the negative response of other employees to the Black Lives Matter slogan, managers had the right to ban it because it “threatened the security of the workplace.”

In an email to MPR News on Thursday, a Home Depot spokesperson said that the chain does not comment on pending litigation.

Correction (Nov. 7, 2025): A previous version of this story incorrectly identified the location of the Home Depot store. The story has been updated.

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Matt Sepic

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 that managers of a Twin Cities Home Depot did nothing illegal when they banned an employee from wearing a Black Lives Matter slogan on their uniform.

A federal appeals court panel ruled Thursday that managers of a Twin Cities Home Depot did nothing illegal when they banned an employee from wearing a Black Lives Matter slogan on their uniform.


Appeals court upholds Twin Cities Home Depot’s ban on Black Lives Matter insignia

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