Major Legal Victory: Court Restores Defending Ed’s Right to Fight for Free Speech in Schools

A federal appeals court has delivered a massive win for students and parents by striking down a 50-year-old legal loophole that was used to block us from defending free speech in public schools.

In June 2024, Defending Education filed a lawsuit against the Croton-Harmon Union Free School District over strict, vague speech codes that violate the First Amendment. These policies force students to endorse specific social views and threaten them with discipline for sharing their personal political or religious beliefs, effectively chilling free expression in the classroom.

The district court originally dismissed our case, citing a 1973 legal precedent (Aguayo v. Richardson) that prevented national advocacy groups like ours from filing civil rights lawsuits on behalf of our members.

In a landmark ruling, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals officially threw out the Aguayo rule. The court agreed that the rule was completely out of step with the rest of the nation and recognized that associations have a clear right to protect their members’ constitutional rights.

Now that this unfair barrier is gone, our case heads back to the district court. We look forward to proving our standing under the court’s updated standards and putting an end to Croton-Harmon’s unconstitutional speech policies so students can speak freely again.

Defending Ed’s Sarah Parshall Perry:

Today’s victory was a long-overdue course correction in the 2nd Circuit on who has standing to challenge draconian school speech policies. That circuit now joins all others in recognizing that organizations like ours can challenge unconstitutional government dictates on behalf of our members.

Read the full decision:

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