Attorney General Labrador Files Brief to Protect Students’ Free Speech Rights

[BOISE] - Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador filed a friend-of-the-court brief today with the U.S. Supreme Court, along with 17 other states, to protect students' First Amendment free speech rights in the case of L.M. v. Town of Middleborough.

A middle school student in Massachusetts wore a t-shirt to school that had the message, "There are only two genders." School officials told the student he couldn't wear the shirt. The student then put tape over the word "two," so the message read, "There are only (censored) genders," but school officials banned that too.

"Students don't surrender their Constitutionally protected rights to free speech upon entering a school," said Attorney General Labrador. "The school actively promoted gender identity theory in the classroom but refused to tolerate an alternative opinion from a student. That's blatant viewpoint discrimination and it's unacceptable."

The brief from the attorneys general asks the Supreme Court to hear the case after a lower court sided with the school.

In referring to the 1969 case, known as Tinker, the brief argues that the Supreme Court ruled that, "a student may express his mind 'if he does so without materially and substantially interfering with the requirements of appropriate discipline in the operation of the school and without colliding with the rights of others.'"

South Carolina and West Virginia co-led the brief and were also joined by the attorneys general from Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Ohio, Texas, Utah, and Virginia.