In 1969, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled (7 to 2) that students were free to wear armbands in public schools as a protest against the Vietnam War. Citing earlier court rulings, the majority declared that students don’t “shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate” and “state-operated schools may not be enclaves of totalitarianism.” The Court also emphasized, “Any word spoken, in class, in the lunchroom, or on the campus, that deviates from the views of another person may start an argument or cause a disturbance. But our Constitution says we must take this risk ... and our history says that it is this sort of hazardous freedom - this kind of openness - that is the basis of our national strength and of the independence and vigor of Americans.” With disregard for this principle, the Supreme Court just declined to hear the case of a boy kicked out of a Massachusetts school for wearing a shirt that says, “There are only two genders.”