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There was no such definitive “ruling,” from the Obama Administration or anyone else. Observers of a particular ideological bent reacted with alarm or outrage: “ Is the Gadsden Flag Racist?,” “ Government Ruling: Wearing ‘Don’t Tread on Me’ Gadsden Flag Can Be Racist & ‘Racial Harassment,’ ” “ Obama Administration: ‘Don't Tread on Me’ Clothes Are Racist,” and so on.

School of Law, brought this to the public’s attention through the Volokh Conspiracy, his legal-affairs blog on the Washington Post’ s Web site. Eugene Volokh, a professor at the U.C.L.A.

But, this summer, that decision was reversed by the E.E.O.C., which, after some procedural back-and-forth, ordered the agency to investigate the matter. The Postal Service dismissed the complaint. Specifically, as a recent Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filing on the matter put it, one of the man’s co-workers “repeatedly wore a cap to work with an insignia of the Gadsden Flag.” The cap design in question involves a coiled rattlesnake over the phrase “ DON’T TREAD ON ME,” against a yellow background.

In January of 2014, an African-American maintenance mechanic for the United States Postal Service in Denver filed a complaint charging that he had been subjected to racial discrimination. How do we decide what the “Don’t Tread on Me” flag, or indeed any symbol, really means? Photograph by Drew Angerer / The New York Times / Redux

Backdrop photography stripe blue and yellow