On September 25, 2023, Parents Defending Education (PDE) filed its opening brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit in its lawsuit against Ohio’s Olentangy Local School District Board of Education. The lower court had ruled that public schools can force students to use classmates’ “preferred pronouns” and punish students who use pronouns that match biological sex.
PDE argued that the district’s policies violate the First Amendment in three ways: they force students to say particular things, they punish students for certain viewpoints and topics, and they manipulate far too much protected speech. The Supreme Court has made clear that students do not lose their free speech rights “at the schoolhouse gate.” Because the lower court wrongly refused PDE’s request for a preliminary injunction, a court order blocking the policies while the case goes on, PDE asked the appeals court to reverse that decision.
PDE also asked the court to hear arguments in December 2023 to move the case along quickly. In August 2023, PDE had asked the court to speed up the appeal, and the district did not object. The court agreed to take up the case as soon as its schedule allowed, but left it to the judges hearing the case to decide when, or whether, to hold oral argument.
Read the full brief below:
