Lower courts ruled that the school’s restriction did not conflict with the historic 1969 Supreme Court case, Tinker v. Des Moines, which allowed students to wear armbands opposing the Vietnam War by stating that pupils do not “shed their constitutional rights” when they reach “the schoolhouse gate.”

Christopher and Susan Morrison, the guardians of student L.M., who is not named in court filings because he is a minor, used the precedent to sue the Middleborough, Mass., school district in 2023 for refusing to let the student wear the shirt, as well as another that read, “there are censored genders.”

“It gives schools a blank check to suppress unpopular political or religious views, allows censorship based on ‘negative psychological impact’ or ideological offense, rejects a public school’s duty to inculcate tolerance, and lowers free-speech protection for