The lower courts previously held that Kari MacRae’s lawsuit was barred by prior court precedents.
The Supreme Court won’t hear the case of a former public school teacher who sued her school district for firing her allegedly as retaliation for social media posts that preceded her employment there.
The petitioner, Kari MacRae, is currently a Republican candidate in the 2026 election for a Cape Cod-area seat in the Massachusetts State Senate.
The court denied the petition in MacRae v. Mattos in an unsigned order on June 30. The court did not explain its decision.
No justices dissented, but Justice Clarence Thomas attached a statement criticizing the federal appeals court’s legal analysis of the case as “deeply flawed.”
MacRae, who was a high school math and business teacher, had sued Hanover Public Schools in Massachusetts for damages.
She was terminated in 2021 after school officials found old posts on her TikTok account that they said contained memes featuring “themes of homophobia, transphobia, and racism.”
One video she posted as part of a successful campaign for a school board position said that public schools should not teach critical race theory.
The video also said schools should not teach students that “they can choose whether or not they want to be a girl or a boy.”
MacRae was let go roughly a month after she was hired.
Her termination letter told her that “continuing your employment in light of your social media posts would have a significant negative impact on student learning” at the school.
She sued, claiming the firing violated the free speech provisions of the First Amendment.
A federal district court rejected her claim, holding that the school district had presented sufficient evidence that keeping MacRae in her position could lead to disruption at the school.
The district court also found that the school district enjoyed qualified immunity.
Qualified immunity, a rule created by the courts, shields government officials from individual liability unless the wrongdoer violated a clearly established right.
She appealed, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit affirmed.
