by Chris Gilbert, Thompson & Horton LLP

In a follow up to my recent post about book removals (see Butts, Farts and T-Shirts: Two New First Amendment Cases – Part 1 (books)), today we are discussing L.M. v. Town of Middleborough, Mass., --- F.4th ---- (1st Cir. 2024), a new case from the First Circuit (Massachusetts) involving a challenge to a t-shirt removal.  The plaintiff, a middle school student, wore a t-shirt to school that read “There Are Only Two Genders.”  He was told he could not wear the shirt under a provision of the dress code that prohibited clothing that “state[d], impl[ied] or depict[ed] speech or imagery that targets groups based on race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, religious affiliation, or any other classification.”  He then wore the same shirt with the words “Only Two” covered by a piece…

by Chris Gilbert, Thompson & Horton LLP

In the last ten days, two courts of appeals have issued extremely interesting First Amendment cases involving age-old situations –removing books from a library and banning t-shirts in public schools –that, for whatever reasons, haven’t been addressed by the circuit courts in a while.  I’ll talk about the book removal case in Part 1, while Part 2 (later this week!) will talk about t-shirts.

In Little v. Llano County, --- F.4th ---- (5th Cir. 2024), the Fifth Circuit ruled that a public county library violated the First Amendment by removing seventeen (17) specific books, which addressed themes of sexuality and homosexuality; gender identity and dysphoria; and racism – and then a group of seven books that the parties and judges all referred to as “butt and fart” books, as typified by Larry the Farting Leprechaun.

The…