When a student shared his belief that there are only two genders while riding the school bus, it didn’t just spark an argument—it ignited a legal battle that Cornerstone is now taking to the New Hampshire Supreme Court. The outcome could set a precedent impacting the constitutional protections of free speech, religious freedom, right to bear arms, and more for every resident of the Granite State.
The lawsuit began in the Rockingham Superior Court in November of 2021 after a high school freshman and football player, M.P., on the school bus expressed his belief that there are only two genders. A peer, who was not part of the initial conversation, inserted herself to argue with M.P.’s views and later continued to badger him about his beliefs via text message. M.P. refused to back down from his stance, and the next day his peer reported to the football coach that he had engaged in transphobic bullying. Without corroborating this claim, the coach and assistant principal punished M.P. by suspending him from the team for a week.
Cornerstone filed a lawsuit for M.P. and his mother seeking, among other things, $1 in nominal damages for the violation of his rights to free speech and religious freedom. Last July, Rockingham Superior Court Judge Schulman issued his judgement and found the facts to be in M.P.’s favor. However, based on New Hampshire’s constitutional case law, Judge Schulman ruled that M.P. still lost.
Schulman explained that M.P. may have had a remedy in federal court. However, since M.P. chose to rely on the New Hampshire Constitution, and due to the fact that there wasn’t an ongoing or future threat to his rights, the ruling stated he was not entitled to so much as a declaration that the school had violated his rights.
Because the violation of M.P.’s rights was completed in the past, he had no case for remedy under the state constitution.
In hearing the appeal, the New Hampshire Supreme Court will consider the history and text of the Constitution which Cornerstone argues provides grounds for M.P.’s victory. Additionally, the justices will rely on the following facts from Judge Schulman’s ruling:
The school’s two main witnesses lied when they said M.P. was suspended for inappropriate language rather than for stating his religious views. Judge Schulman’s ruling declared their testimony had “all the believability of Captain Renault’s famous exclamation of shock in Casablanca.”
M.P.’s peer was the primary instigator of hostility, and she made false accusations to school officials: “The tenor of her text did not suggest a desire for an open exchange of views. At best AG was proselytizing; at worst she was berating,” wrote Schulman.
The school punished M.P. for exercising his freedom of speech and religion: The court determined that M.P. was punished for “statements regarding gender identity.” Judge Schulman stated, “the vice principal’s contemporaneous oral statements and contemporaneous log notes prove that the meeting was about pronouns and gender identity.”
Through the lens of our state’s history – and even one of basic fairness – it makes no sense that New Hampshire would deny Granite Staters every kind of remedy for retrospective (past) violations of constitutional rights. Yet, no New Hampshire court has ever upheld that the state constitution allows nominal or even declaratory damages in such cases.
Despite losing on a purely legal basis, the trial court ruling provides M. P. with a promising foundation for appeal to the New Hampshire Supreme Court. Our case has the potential to be the first victory over a public institution for a completed violation of an individual’s constitutional rights.
If you would like to financially support Cornerstone’s legal defense of M.P. and support our mission to set a new legal precedent that provides relief for previous violations of any of Granite Staters’ constitutional rights, please consider making a donation today.
