Plaintiffs claim that the New Hampshire district, police, and even soccer referees treated school grounds as “First Amendment-free zones” from which they could expel parents who spoke in a way the government did not like.

In 1955, the Supreme Court ruled that public schools could not suppress non-disruptive speech by students, such as wearing black armbands to protest the Vietnam War.

However, the issue that Tinker’s precedent from 1969 arguably settled continues to percolate in courts as school districts suppress the same passive expression, but applied to a more controversial issue: gender identification versus rights based on sex.

Parents and grandparent, who silently protested the male eligibility for girls soccer by wearing wristbands in pink with the letters “XX”, referring to the female chromosome, have sued the New Hampshire district and officials, as well as the soccer referee. They claim retaliation, including being banned from stepping onto any school property.

Just the News did not receive any responses from the defendants.

Kyle Fellers, Eldon Rash (his former father-in law), Anthony and Nicole Foote, and other defendants are seeking injunctions against the district’s policy and athletics manual as it applies to their wristbands, signs, and any “non-disruptive” expressions of political and social views, based on audience reactions or hecklers’ vetos. They also want an end to no-trespassing orders against Fellers and Anthony Foote.

They are represented by the Institute for Free Speech, whose retaliation lawsuit on behalf of conservative professors was dismissed last Thursday for lack of standing. The case has since been appealed.

The two male athletes sued to be allowed to “tryout for, practice with and compete with girls’ teams” but not all males who identify as female.

Landya McCafferty, the nominee of President Obama to be judge by the United States Supreme Court, cited the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals precedent interpreting the Supreme Court’s Title VII transgender discrimination Bostock ruling as also applicable to the Title IX education context. The Supreme Court previously stated that it would not “prejudge”, whether the precedent applied to other Civil Rights Act sections.

More than half of the states have blocked the Biden administration’s Title IX regulations, which reinterpreted sex discrimination laws to protect and prioritize gender identity above sex. In addition, hundreds of school districts and colleges are also being prevented from implementing the regulation in other states due to court injunctions, which rejected the feds’ argument that Bostock applied to Title IX.

Two of these injunctions were upheld by the 5th and 6th Circuits in this summer. However, President Biden’s nominees to both three-judge panels would have allowed non-gender-identity provisions in Title IX regulations to take effect.

Last week, advocates for female-only sport received more good news when a federal court issued an injunction to stop the University of New Mexico enforcing its security fee policy based on viewpoints against the hosts of a event featuring former NCAA swimmer Riley Gaines. Gaines spoke about competing with transgender record holder Lia Thomas nearly a year earlier.

UNM demanded at first more than $10,000 to its Turning Point USA Chapter and the Leadership Institute where Gaines runs an eponymous centre, in order to pay for 33 officers. The UNM later charged them half of that amount, but the two groups sued instead of paying. They asked a court not to retaliate by threatening loss or charter as well as a ban from hosting campus events.

In a press statement by plaintiffs’ attorneys at the Southeastern Legal Foundation, Jonathan Gonzales, co-president of TPUSA Chapter said: “The court clearly recognizes the double standards” that the university has “allowed a dragshow to take place on the campus without any security fee.”

The 1st Circuit narrowly defined Tinker in its ruling for Middleborough Public Schools, Massachusetts, this summer, when it banned student Liam Morrison wearing shirts saying “there are only two genders”. After his first punishment, he was also punished with “censored Genders”, which was his reaction to the district’s pro-LGBTQ message.

The IFS lawsuit filed on Monday is very similar, but does not apply to students. The lawsuit names Bow School District, Bow High Schools Principal Matt Fisk, Athletic Director Michael Desilets and Bow Police Department Lieutenant Phillip Lamy as defendants.

The suit claims that the district treated it as a “First Amendment-free zone” from which the government can expel parents who express themselves in ways they dislike. It cites a district policy which requires “mutual respect and civility among all individuals at school events or on school property,” and an athletics policy prohibiting “[p]oor sporting conduct… in the seats.”

After Judge McCafferty ruled against the state law, Desilets informed Nicole Foote that she could not prevent males from participating in soccer matches against females like her daughter, despite her protests regarding “the competitive unfairness of the sport and the injury risk for female athletes” according to her suit.

Desilets sent an email to soccer families on the day of the game on Sept. 17, reminding them that the NHIAA prohibits inappropriate signs, references and language, but assuring them that “some different opinions about tomorrow’s match… are perfectly fine.”

The suit claims that Fellers’ and Foote’s husband bought blank pink wristbands, “that athletes wear often to raise awareness of breast cancer”, and then wrote black X marks onto them. They thought this was no different from shirts worn by political candidates, Pride Flags, and “messages on global warming” which spectators wear often to extracurricular events.

The wristbands were distributed “to about half a dozen spectators” who had requested them. Everyone put the bands on during the second half. Andy Foote also “put a Riley Gaines sign on the windshield of his Jeep” at halftime.

Andy Foote agreed when Desilets asked him to remove his wristband because it was a “protest”. But Fellers refused and Principal Fisk, Lt. Lamy gave him an ultimatum. Lamy claimed falsely that they were on private land and Lamy was wearing a camera. This “should have recorded” the heated words between them, according to the lawsuit.

Andy Fo