In general, I am happy to give people the right to express themselves in awful ways because it is supposed to mean that everyone’s free speech is protected, but this isn’t quite as easy:

Springfield’s commissioners voted, 5-2, to ban the flag’s display by any township employee who was on duty, as well as on township property and vehicles.

(re-ordered)

… saying that the flag had become central to tensions between marginalized communities and law enforcement, and adding that it had been adopted by white nationalists since its introduction.

That seems fair, but was probably too restrictive. They should have banned all kinds of extraneous messaging.

District Judge Karen Marston wrote in Monday’s ruling that the Springfield’s ban was an “unconstitutional restriction on employee speech under the First Amendment,” which “protects speech even when it is considered ‘offensive.’”

This sort of thing generally escalates and gets picky – down to “you must wear your uniform and nothing else” and then they get exceptions for wedding rings, crosses, hair bands, glasses, jewelry, and then people wear pins of the ‘banned’ item but since it is jewelry it becomes hard to argue that certain jewelry is OK but some isn’t.

They should still be able to completely disallow ‘defacing’ of their public propert (vehicles, etc.).