Attorney General Alan Wilson applauds victory in case about students’ free speech rights

(COLUMBIA, S.C.) – Attorney General Alan Wilson announced that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6^th Circuit has upheld students’ free speech rights by striking down a school district’s policies that required all students to use preferred pronouns.

Attorney General Wilson co-led a 23-state friend-of-the-court brief filed with the court in an Ohio case. A school district in that state adopted policies requiring everyone to use students’ preferred pronouns. A group of parents challenged the policies, and the 6^th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in their favor on Thursday.

“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,” Attorney General Wilson said. “I applaud this Court for upholding free speech rights.”

The brief that Attorney General Wilson co-led argued that some believe people can have a gender identity inconsistent with their biological sex, and using preferred pronouns expresses that view. But others disagree and believe that using pronouns inconsistent with someone’s sex is to speak a lie. In this case, the school district took sides and embraced the first view while trying to eradicate opposing views. The 23 states’ attorneys general argued that “the First Amendment forbids school officials from coercing students to express messages inconsistent with the students’ values.”

South Carolina and Ohio co-led the 23-state brief, joined by 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.

You can read the brief here.