Supreme Court Declines Appeal in Massachusetts Student’s ‘Two Genders’ T-Shirt Case

Supreme Court is seen on Capitol Hill in Washington, April 25, 2024

The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday declined to hear the appeal of a Massachusetts middle school student who was prohibited from wearing a T-shirt that read “There are only two genders,” effectively upholding a lower court’s decision that the school acted within its authority to restrict the apparel due to its potential impact on transgender and gender-nonconforming students.

The student, enrolled at John T. Nichols Middle School in Middleborough, Massachusetts, had also attempted to wear a modified version of the shirt, covering the original message with tape labeled “censored.” School officials barred both versions, citing concerns over the disruption they could cause in the school environment.

The Supreme Court’s decision leaves intact a ruling from the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which determined that the school’s action was justified. The appeals court found it reasonable to predict that the T-shirt would “poison the educational atmosphere” and interfere with the learning process.

Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas dissented from the Court’s decision not to take up the case. Alito argued that the Court missed an opportunity to address a critical free speech issue affecting American students. He pointed out that while the school promoted expressions supporting the idea of multiple genders, it silenced opposing views.

“This case presents 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,” Alito wrote in his dissent.

The controversy has reignited debate over the boundaries of free speech in public schools, especially concerning gender identity and expression. The case was framed around the precedent set in the landmark 1969 Supreme Court decision Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District, which affirmed that students do not “shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate.” However, Tinker also permits schools to limit student speech that causes a substantial disruption to the educational environment.

In this case, the appeals court sided with the school district, concluding that the restriction did not violate the student’s First Amendment rights given the foreseeable disruption the T-shirt might cause.