The Supreme Court issued a ruling Tuesday that’s likely to spark outrage among conservatives, Republicans, and parents nationwide. The case involved a middle school student from Middleborough, Massachusetts, who sued Nichols Middle School with the support of his father and stepmother, claiming the school violated his First Amendment rights.
Liam Morrison, along with his parents, Christopher and Susan Morrison, argued that the school banned him from wearing a t-shirt stating “There are only two genders” and later, another shirt that read “There are [censored] genders.”
Both times Liam Morrison wore the shirts, school officials sent him home when he refused to change. Administrators argued that the messages made other students feel unsafe. A federal court sided with the school, ruling that the shirts’ statements were demeaning to transgender students and disrupted the learning environment.
On Tuesday, the Supreme Court declined to hear the case, with Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito both putting out dissents saying the court should have considered it. “The decision comes nearly a year after the First Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against Liam and his parents in June 2024, finding that the school was justified in asking him to remove the shirt and sending him home when he refused,” Fox News reported.
It would seem that a majority of justices on the high court are also very selective about what they view as ‘permissible’ speech, even though the First Amendment was intended to protect all speech within the framers’ vision of the Constitution (slander, libel, etc. being some of the speech exceptions).
According to the outlet, Morrison, then a seventh grader, was sent home with his father on both occasions after refusing to change his shirt. On a later attempt, he wore the same shirt again but covered the words “only two” with a piece of tape labeled “censored.”
In a May 2023 interview with Fox News, Liam explained that his shirt wasn’t meant to target anyone personally. “I’m just voicing my opinion about a statement that I believe to be true,” he told the network at the time. “And I feel like some people may think that I’m imposing hate speech, even though it’s not directed towards anyone.”
At the time, the Morrison family was represented by attorneys from the Alliance Defending Freedom and the Massachusetts Family Institute. In January, shortly after taking office, President Donald Trump signed an executive order declaring that the U.S. government would officially recognize only two genders: male and female.
The order states the Trump administration will “defend women’s rights and protect freedom of conscience by using clear and accurate language and policies that recognize women are biologically female, and men are biologically male.”
