MORGAN HILL, Calif. – Protesters waived American flags outside of a California high school on Cinco de Mayo yesterday in opposition of the school’s ban on patriotic American clothing during the Mexican holiday.

District officials, however, announced they’ve lifted the ban at Live Oak High School despite a federal court ruling that they were within their authority to implement the ban to prevent violence between white and Latino students, who’ve had a history of conflict, CBS San Francisco reports.

In March, the U.S. Supreme Court opted to deny an appeal by four students who were forced to turn their American flag t-shirts inside out during a 2010 Cinco de Mayo celebration. The year prior, Mexican students circled the campus with a Mexican flag, which prompted white students to hoist an American flag up a tree while chanting “USA!” SFGate.com reports.

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The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court ruling that the students’ rights to freedom of expression were outweighed by administrators’ concerns the shirts would cause racial violence by provoking Latino students, according to the news site.

The four students involved were sent home when they refused to turn their shirts inside-out.

The case gained nationwide attention, as well as a peaceful flag waiving protest Cinco de Mayo each year by conservative activists outside of the school. This year they returned to emphasize their opposition to the ban, though school officials announced the ban is no more.

“All the courts got it wrong and we don’t agree with them finding our flag offensive,” Georgine Scott-Codiga, member of the Gilroy-Morgan Hill Patriots, told NBC Bay Area outside Live Oak yesterday. “Basically the court said it’s OK to bully people in order to threaten violence in order to get your way,”

School officials said they decided to lift the ban because relations between white and Latino students have improved dramatically since issue surfaced in 2010, and the students and administrators involved are no longer there.

“Over the last five years the tenor on campus between all kids has been very good,” principal Lloyd Webb told CBS San Francisco.

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Kendall Jones, a father of one of the four students sent home for his American apparel in 2010, told NBC Bay Area protestors didn’t show up to cause trouble.

“We’re not stomping all over school and showing anybody up,” he said. “We’re just reminding people, hey, don’t forget how important this flag is.”

Current Live Oak students, meanwhile, seem focused on repairing the relationship between student groups. Last year, they made a “unity banner” with student handprints and hung it on a chain-link fence surrounding the school, SFGate.com reports.

“It’s the adults’ battle now,” one student said last year in a video made to urge respect on Cinco de Mayo. “We really don’t want anything to do with it.”