South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson has co-led a legal brief involving 23 states, which was filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. The brief aims to defend students’ First Amendment rights to free speech.
The case in question involves an Ohio school district that implemented policies mandating the use of students’ preferred pronouns. A group of parents opposed these policies but were unsuccessful at the district court level and subsequently lost before a small panel of Appeals Court judges. However, they have now secured a hearing before the full Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals. The brief supports the parents and students involved in this case.
Attorney General Wilson commented on the matter, stating, “The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1969 that teachers and students don’t ‘shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate,’ and yet this district in Ohio is trying to force all students to say things that many of them may not believe in.”
The brief contends that while some individuals believe gender identity can differ from biological sex, others view using pronouns inconsistent with someone’s sex as dishonest. It argues that by endorsing one perspective over another, the school district is infringing upon opposing views. The states assert that “the First Amendment forbids school officials from coercing students to express messages inconsistent with the students’ values.”
In addition to South Carolina and Ohio, other states participating in this initiative include 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.
