The school had decided that T-shirts would make it difficult for other students to concentrate on their studies. The two conservative justices, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, would have taken the case.
Transgender References removed from Stonewall Website
References to transgender people have been removed from the National Park Service website at Stonewall National Monument.
FOX -5 NY
WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court has allowed students to ban controversial T-shirts from being kept in the center and refused to file a lawsuit related to the message that children have only two genders.
The decision leaves a lower court ruling on May 27 that it is reasonable for the school to conclude that it could destroy the shirt.
Two of the court’s conservative justice, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, said they would file a student’s complaint.
The Supreme Court move comes after the debate on transgender rights jumped to the forefront of the culture war, with President Donald Trump declaring that only two genders, male and female, are recognized by the federal government.
“These genders remain the same,” Trump said in one of his first executive orders. The American Medical Association supports gender spectra, including non-binary. The American Psychological Association defines gender as the attitudes, feelings and behaviors that a person is associated with sex.
Middle schooler wore a shirt sharing Trump’s feelings about transgender issues
Liam Morrison wanted to share his views on the issue as a seventh grader in 2023 when he was wearing a “two gender” t-shirt at school.
When the principal tells Liam he can’t go back to class unless he changes his shirt., Liam chose to go home.
As the controversy over the shirt grew, Liam later wore a version of the shirt, with the words “censored” recorded by “two genders.”
He was also told to change the shirt.
School officials said they were acting with concerns about genderless students. Part of this has experienced serious mental health struggles, including the idea of suicide, due to how they were treated by other students.
Liam’s lawyers said the school violated his initial right to amend the school’s views differently.
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Lawyers cite “the market for ideas” at school
Liam “went to the market for school ideas, trying to deal with sociopolitical issues in a passive, silent and engaging way,” the alliance’s defense attorney told the Supreme Court.
“Students do not lose their right to free speech the moment they step into the school building,” group lawyer David Courtman said in a statement after the Supreme Court refused to appeal. “Schools cannot suppress students’ opinions.
The Boston-based First Circuit Court of Appeals is on the wing of the school, and the federal court has ruled that schools can restrict messages that can reasonably be interpreted as a lightly meant to a person’s identity, saying it is reasonably expected to be confused.
And school officials write that they must have “some margins to make high stakes assessments under conditions of inevitable uncertainty.”
“The question here isn’t whether t-shirts should be banned,” Baron wrote. “The question is who should decide whether to ban educators and federal judges?”
Alito: Free speech in schools should be a rule, not an exception
Alito disagreed, saying the appeals court sprinkled water on the Supreme Court’s “strict standards” because of a time when schools could limit students’ rights to free speech.
Free speech should be a rule, and no exception, he wrote.
However, the appeals court said it had postponed school officials’ speculation about the effects of the T-shirt, even if there was no actual confusion, and accepted the administrator’s conclusion that the shirt message lightly meant someone else’s personal identity.
“However, feeling upset is an inevitable part of living in our “often controversial” society,” writes Alito. And the desire to avoid discomfort and discomfort is “not a reason to stop students from speaking.”
