In fall 2023, 17 states and 15 advocacy organizations filed amicus (“friend of the court”) briefs in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit supporting Parents Defending Education in its lawsuit against Ohio’s Olentangy Local School District Board of Education. The groups argued that the district’s policies, which require students to use classmates’ preferred pronouns, unconstitutionally force students to speak. Even the ACLU and ACLU of Ohio partly sided with PDE, arguing that at least two of the district’s policies violate the First Amendment. Here is what two of the briefs said:
The Policies unconstitutionally compel students to speak the Board’s views on gender. The Policies thus contravene a “fixed star in our constitutional constellation”: “no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion or force citizens to confess by word or act their faith therein.” W. Virginia State Bd. of Educ. v. Barnette, 319 U.S. 624, 642 (1943). The Supreme Court recognized that fixed star in another case involving forced student speech. There, a school sought to compel students to salute the American flag. The First Amendment barred it from doing so. Just as the First Amendment in the 1940s barred schools from compelling a symbolic pledge of patriotic allegiance, the First Amendment today bars schools from compelling pledges to modern views of gender. South Carolina, Ohio, and the other Amici states submit this brief to urge the Court to say so.
Brief Of Amici Curiae States Of South Carolina, Ohio, Alabama, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Texas, Utah, And Virginia Supporting Plaintiff-Appellant And Reversal
…the ACLU and ACLU of Ohio urge this Court to reverse the district court’s decision in part. At minimum, the School District’s Discriminatory Language and PCD Policies are unconstitutional under the First Amendment.
Brief Of Amici Curiae American Civil Liberties Union and American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio in Partial Support of Plaintiff-Appellant Parents Defending Education
Read all briefs below:
