The Supreme Court issued a ruling on Tuesday that will most likely make conservatives, Republicans, and parents across the United States furious. A middle-school-aged boy from Middleborough, Massachusetts, brought a case against Nichols Middle School through his father and stepmother, alleging the school violated his free speech rights.
Liam Morrison, along with his parents, Susan and Christopher Morrison, say that the school banned him from wearing a t-shirt that said, “There are only two genders” and another that read “There are [censored] genders” on the front.
Both times Morrison wore the shirt, he was sent home after he refused to change into something else. The institution claims that the shirts made his classmates feel unsafe. A federal court agreed with that assessment, saying the message demeaned transgender students.
Today, 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.
The article stated that Morrison, who was a seventh grader at the time the two incidents occurred, was sent home with his dad on both occasions after defiantly refusing to change shirts. He later wore the shirt a second time, but covered the words “only two” with a piece of tape. The word “censored” was written on it.
During an interview with Fox News in May 2023, Liam said that his shirt wasn’t directed at anyone specifically.
“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.
Back in January, after being sworn into office, President Donald Trump signed an executive order proclaiming that the United States government would only be recognizing two genders: male and female.
According to NBC News, the order says it 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.”
“Across the country, ideologues who deny the biological reality of sex have increasingly used legal and other socially coercive means to permit men to self-identify as women and gain access to intimate single-sex spaces and activities designed for women, from women’s domestic abuse shelters to women’s workplace showers. This is wrong,” the order continues. “Efforts to eradicate the biological reality of sex fundamentally attack women by depriving them of their dignity, safety, and well-being.”
“The erasure of sex in language and policy has a corrosive impact not just on women but on the validity of the entire American system,” it continues. “Basing Federal policy on truth is critical to scientific inquiry, public safety, morale, and trust in government itself,” it adds.
