‘Only 2 Genders’ Shirt Case: Supreme Court Upholds School’s Punishment
May 28, 2025
The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to hear an appeal in the case of a Massachusetts student who was punished for wearing a t-shirt with the message “There are only 2 genders.”
Christianity Daily reports that the high court released an orders list Tuesday morning in the case of L.M. v. Town of Middleborough, Massachusetts, et. al.
The court’s refusal to grant a petition for a writ of certiorari allows an earlier ruling from the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to stand against the student and his parents.
In March 2023, Liam Morrison was removed from his class at John T. Nichols Middle School and ordered to remove his shirt because it said “There are only 2 genders.”
Morrison wore the shirt again later that year with a piece of tape that read “censored” covering up the words “only 2” and was again ordered to remove the shirt because it contained what school officials described as “hateful language.”
Morrison and his parents filed a lawsuit, claiming that the school had violated his First Amendment rights.
According to the Christian Post, in June 2024, a three-judge panel of the 1st Circuit unanimously ruled against Morrison, upholding a lower court decision.
Justice Samuel Alito, who was joined by Justice Clarence Thomas, wrote a dissenting opinion that described the case as: “an issue of great importance for our Nation’s youth: whether public schools may suppress student speech either because it expresses a viewpoint that the school disfavors or because of vague concerns about the likely effect of the speech on the school atmosphere or on students who find the speech offensive.”
“So long as the First Circuit’s opinion is on the books, thousands of students will attend school without the full panoply of First Amendment rights. That alone is worth this Court’s attention,” Alito added.
Circuit Chief Judge David Barron noted that Morrison acknowledged during oral arguments that “schools could bar silent, passive expression that described persons who identify as transgender in obviously highly demeaning terms but targeted no specific individual.”
Photo: top, Credit: Unsplash/Ian Hutchinson