Attorney General Alan Wilson co-leads brief supporting students’ free speech rights

(COLUMBIA, S.C.) – South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson co-led a 23-state brief filed today with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit aimed at protecting students’ First Amendment right to free speech.

The case is about a school district in Ohio that adopted policies requiring everyone to use students’ preferred pronouns. A group of parents challenged the policies but lost at the district court level. They appealed and lost before a small panel of the Appeals Court judges but have now won a hearing before the entire Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals. This brief supports the parents and students.

“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.

The brief argues some believe that 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 states argue that “the First Amendment forbids school officials from coercing students to express messages inconsistent with the students’ values.”

South Carolina and Ohio are leading 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.