South Carolina – South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson praised a big court win this week. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit found in favor of students’ right to free speech in an Ohio school district dispute about using preferred pronouns.
The court ruled against district guidelines that compelled all kids to use the pronouns of others, siding with parents who said the laws infringed their children’s constitutional rights. The decision came after a group of 23 state attorneys general, led by Wilson and Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost, wrote a brief in support of the parents’ case.
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Wilson’s statement mentioned a famous Supreme Court case from 1969 that said, “Teachers and students don’t lose their constitutional rights to free speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate.” He said that the Ohio district’s rules made students say things they might not believe, and he called the verdict a powerful reaffirmation of the First Amendment.
The multi-state brief said that the school system had taken a side in an ongoing moral and cultural debate by forcing children to use language that supported a certain concept of gender identity. The attorneys general said that this kind of regulation was illegal because it forced students to speak out against their strongly held convictions.
“The First Amendment forbids school officials from coercing students to express messages inconsistent with the students’ values,” the brief stated, underscoring the states’ shared stance on protecting individuals’ right not to speak against their conscience.
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The attorneys general of Alabama, Alaska, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, and West Virginia also filed.
Wilson added that the result shows how important it is to protect constitutional rights, especially in schools where kids are learning to speak up for what they believe. He also said that the verdict is a reminder that all students have the right to free speech, no matter what they think.
You can read the brief here.
