Attorney General Lynn Fitch filed an amicus brief at the U.S. Supreme Court, along with 17 other attorneys general, toprotect students’ First Amendment free speech rights. The brief from theattorneys general asks the Supreme Court to hear L.M. v. Town of Middleborough, Massachusetts.
"Free speech is a fundamental freedom, a foundation for all our liberties. TheSupreme Court has long upheld that students and teachers do not forfeit theirFirst Amendment rights when they enter their school," said AttorneyGeneral Lynn Fitch. "Here, a student was censored because his t-shirt didnot conform to the school’s preferred pronoun standards. The FirstAmendment protects his right to his viewpoint and we should defend thatright.”This case stems from a middle school student in Massachusetts who wore a t-shirt to school that had the message, “There are only two genders.”
Schoolofficials told the student he couldn’t wear the shirt. The student then put tapeover the word “two,” so the message read, “There are only (censored) genders,”but school officials banned that too.Referencing the 1969 case Tinker v. Des Moines Independent CommunitySchool District, the brief argues that the Supreme Court ruled in that case, “astudent may express his mind ‘if he does so without materially andsubstantially interfering with the requirements of appropriate discipline in theoperation of the school and without colliding with the rights of others.’” Theattorneys general argue that the First Circuit Court of Appeals misappliedTinker.General Fitch joined the attorneys general from Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia,Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Ohio,South Carolina, Texas, Utah, Virginia, and West Virginia on the brief.
Original source can be found here.