In November 2023, Parents Defending Education (PDE) filed a reply 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. PDE is asking the court to reverse the lower court’s refusal to block the district’s speech policies while the case continues.
The brief argued:
- The district abandoned the lower court’s reasoning. The lower court agreed the policies force students to speak but said that was allowed for teaching purposes. It also found the policies didn’t target any viewpoint and relied on outside articles to say they prevented disruption. On appeal, the district defended none of these points and made new arguments instead.
- The policies force students to speak. Under Hurley v. Irish-American Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Group of Boston, the government can’t make people change their message to make it “more acceptable to others.”
- Schools can’t punish students for their viewpoint. Under Sixth Circuit precedent, viewpoint-based limits on student speech are not allowed, even under Tinker v. Des Moines, the key Supreme Court case on student speech.
- Offending someone isn’t the same as violating their rights. The district’s new claim that the policies protect “the rights of others” came too late. Even if it hadn’t, speech doesn’t violate someone’s rights just because it offends them.
- The policies reach too far. They ban a wide range of protected speech, including speech off school grounds.
PDE asked the court to reverse the lower court’s decision and block the policies itself, or send the case back with instructions to do so.
Read the full brief below:
