Alliance Defending Freedom is representing Liam Morrison, a Massachusetts public school student whose “There Are Only Two Genders” t-shirt triggered school officials at Nichols Middle School. Morrison was ordered to remove the shirt, but refused to do so, so he was told not to return to class that day. So he went home, and then sued.
On behalf of Morrison, ADF and the Massachusetts Family Institute sued in 2023 to argue for his First Amendment right to display a message at school even if school officials objected to it.
ADF is now appealing to the nation’s highest court after losing the First Amendment case federal court and after an appeals court ruled against its client in June.
A decision whether to take up the case could come anytime before the end of the year.
The case is L.M. v. Town of Middleborough.
When the justices read ADF’s writ of certiorari, ADF attorney Logan Spena says the high court will learn Nichols Middle School punished Morrison but did not punish another student who wore a “He/She/They It’s Okay” shirt during “pride month” at the school.
“So other students were encouraged to express their own views, including on this important and contentious topic of gender and sexuality, but only Liam was silenced,” Spena says.
Concerned about the free speech case, 18 U.S. states have filed friend-of-court briefs asking the Supremes to take up the case. Those states, led by West Virginia and South Carolina, argue in the brief the federal courts misapplied Tinker, a 1969 Supreme Court ruling that argued over defining “substantial disruption” in the classroom.
The landmark Tinker ruling, which favored high school students, came after the students were punished for wearing armbands to school to protest the Vietnam War.
"Whether you like Liam's speech, or whether you don't,” Spena argues, “what you should care about is free speech for all and schools that will instill in all a respect for free speech."
