MIDDLEBORO – Eighteen states and several organizations have filed “friend of the court’’ briefs asking the Supreme Court to review the case of a Middleboro student who was forbidden to wear a T-shirt to school with the words “There are only two genders.’’

Prohibiting him from wearing the shirt amounts to “viewpoint discrimination,’’ according to wording of the friend of the court argument signed by the attorneys general of South Carolina, West Virginia, Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Ohio, Texas, Utah and Virginia. 

Schools “should be the place to freely express beliefs,’’ the brief argues.

The Supreme Court request follows two lower court decisions that supported the school’s right to ask the shirt to be removed, 

The case, which has attracted international attention, involves Liam Morrison, who wore a shirt to school March 21, 2023 with the words “There are Only Two Genders.’’ Morrison was 12 years old and a Nichols Middle School seventh grader at the time.

He was asked to remove the shirt, and, when he refused, was taken home by a parent. He later wore a shirt that said “There Are Only (Censored) Genders,’’ which he was also asked to remove. 

Morrison’s father and stepmother, Chris Morrison and Susan Morrison, subsequently filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court for Massachusetts. 

The court upheld the school’s decision, stating that “school administrators were well within their rights to conclude that the statement There Are Only Two Genders may communicate that only two gender identities— male and female— are valid, and any others are invalid or inconsistent.’’ 

Students “have a right to attend school without being confronted by messages attacking their identities,’’ the court ruled.

This decision was appealed to the United States First Circuit Court of Appeals, which upheld the lower court’s decision. The court ruled it “cannot say the message, on its face, shows Middleboro acted unreasonably in concluding that the shirt would be understood…. to demean the identity of transgender and gender-nonconforming’’ Nichols Middle School students. 

Morrison’s supporters subsequently requested that the Supreme Court look at the case. 

They have argued that requiring Morrison to remove the shirt violated his right to free speech. 

“Students don’t lose their free speech rights the moment they walk into a school building,” said Alliance Defending Freedom senior counsel and Vice President of U.S. Litigation David Cortman. 

“This case isn’t about T-shirts; it’s about a public school telling a middle-schooler that he isn’t allowed to express a view that differs from their own,’’ Cortman said.

Superintendent of Schools Carolyn Lyons has refused to comment on the case status, citing pending litigation. 

But at a 2023 Middleboro School Committee meeting, she stated that “the dividing line for me as this district’s leader is when all students are not protected, when all students are not accepted for who they are and are told, either directly or indirectly, that they don’t belong here in Middleboro.’’

Other organizations asking the Supreme Court to take the case include Parents Defending Education, Americans for Prosperity Foundation and National Religious Broadcasters.