South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson filed a brief on Tuesday in a First Amendment case aimed at protecting students' free-speech rights. The brief, joined by attorneys general from 21 other states, was submitted to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit and addresses an Ohio school district's policy requiring students to use preferred pronouns or face punishment.
"At its heart, this case isn’t about transgenderism; it’s about the frightening idea that the government can force people to use particular words and punish them if they don’t," said Attorney General Wilson. "The Supreme Court of the United States ruled back in 1969 that public school students don’t shed their First Amendment rights at the schoolhouse gate, so how can a school district compel them to use certain pronouns?"
The case involves the Olentangy Local School District Board of Education near Columbus, Ohio. The board implemented a policy penalizing students who fail to address peers by their preferred pronouns. A three-judge panel of the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals has previously ruled that these policies do not impermissibly compel student speech or endorse a viewpoint affirming gender identity.
"The First Amendment does not allow school officials to coerce students into expressing messages inconsistent with the students’ values," argues the brief. It continues, "The First Amendment stringently limits a State’s authority to compel a private party to express a view with which the private party disagrees."
The brief requests that the full Court grant a petition for rehearing the case.
Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost co-led the brief alongside Attorney General Wilson. Other participating attorneys general include those from Alabama, Alaska, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia and West Virginia.
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