Justice Samuel Alito went to the mat for “controversial, offensive, or disfavored views” in a case about a Massachusetts middle school student punished for political messages emblazoned on a T-shirt.
Dissenting from the denial to grant the petition for writ of certiorari in the case stylized as Morrison v. Town of Middleborough, the justice chided his colleagues for allowing “confusion” to “linger” about the proper application of long-standing First Amendment case law.
In the case, Liam Morrison, a 7th grader at the time, protested his school’s LGBTQ Pride day by wearing a T-shirt reading “There Are Only Two Genders” to class and was promptly sent home. In the ensuing days, more protesters and counterprotesters joined the dispute — but picketed outside the school grounds. Morrison, back at school, wore the T-shirt with the word “CENSORED” taped over “Only Two” and was again punished by administrators.
Weird, I don’t remember him dissenting when the Supreme Court decided not to hear the case against Arkansas’ anti-BDS law. I guess the government dictating who you’re allowed to boycott isn’t as big a threat to free speech as a middle-school dress code