Supreme Court declines to hear parents’ lawsuit over DOJ school board memo – Washington Examiner
The Supreme Court has opted not to hear a lawsuit brought by parents who claimed that a Department of Justice (DOJ) memo, which investigated protests at school board meetings, infringed on their free speech rights. The case originated from a memo issued by Attorney General Merrick Garland on October 4, 2021, which activated the FBI to address increasing harassment and violence towards school administrators amidst rising tensions over school policies revealed during COVID-19 lockdowns. This included discussions about transgender student management and critical race theory.
The America Freedom Law Center represented parents from Saline, Michigan, and Loudoun, Virginia, accusing the DOJ of attempting to suppress parental expression concerning public education policies. Critics, especially from conservative circles, argued that the evidence for threats outlined in the memo was weak and claimed the National School Boards Association’s involvement reflected a political motivation to label parents as a threat. Following backlash, the NSBA later retracted its statements. The parents asserted their concerns about educational policies being perceived as indoctrination.
Supreme Court declines to hear parents’ lawsuit over DOJ school board memo
The Supreme Court declined to take up a case on Monday involving parents who alleged that the Department of Justice stifled their free speech when it announced it was investigating protests at school board meetings.
The case, brought three years ago by the America Freedom Law Center, centered on a memo Attorney General Merrick Garland issued on Oct. 4, 2021, in which he instructed the FBI to begin addressing alleged threatening behavior toward school administrators.
The America Freedom Law Center argued on behalf of groups of parents in Saline, Michigan, and Loudoun, Virginia, that the memo was “intentionally designed … to chill parents” from expressing their views on public school policies and curricula.
Garland’s memo came in response to nationwide turmoil over school policies that came to light for parents when their students were taking online classes at home because of COVID-19. The most controversial policies focused on managing students who say they are transgender and infusing teachings with critical race theory, an academic concept that assumes black people are systemically oppressed.
Garland cited in the memo a “disturbing spike in harassment, intimidation, and threats of violence” toward school administrators as his reason for mobilizing the FBI. He ordered agents to meet with local law enforcement across the country to strategize on how to manage the threats.
The memo drew criticism from conservatives who said evidence of widespread threats toward administrators was flimsy and that the memo was the product of the National School Boards Association working with President Joe Biden to create alarm over what the NSBA described as “domestic terrorism” against administrators. The NSBA later retracted its comments.
America Freedom Law Center attorneys wrote that parents were “rightly outraged” about the direction education policy was headed in some school districts and that Garland’s memo was a veiled attempt to perpetuate “progressive” viewpoints.
“Parents and private citizens who fund our public schools through their hard-earned tax dollars, including Plaintiffs, are rightly outraged by the notion that parents must surrender their children, under compulsion of law, to school officials who are bent on indoctrinating these young students with false, divisive, harmful, immoral, and racist dogma and ideology,” the attorneys wrote.
A federal judge in Washington, D.C., who was appointed by former President Donald Trump, tossed out the case, saying the parents whom America Freedom Law Center represented had no standing. An appellate court agreed with the judge and affirmed the decision that the case be dismissed.
America Freedom Law Center attorneys responded by petitioning the Supreme Court to take up the case, saying Garland “pejoratively designated these parents as ‘threats’ and ‘domestic terrorists,’ deeming them worthy of investigation and surveillance.”
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The DOJ said in court filings that the parents who brought the lawsuit were not the targets of Garland’s memo and that the memo was intended to address threats of violence only.
“The policy that Plaintiffs purport to be challenging—supposedly ‘to use federal law enforcement resources to silence parents’ who oppose certain school policies—does not exist,” DOJ attorneys wrote.
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