Supreme Court rejects case about DOJ investigating parents who protest at school boards
By Bart Jansen, USA TODAY,
1 days ago
WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court refused on Monday to hear a case from parents in Virginia and Michigan who argued the Justice Department targeted them for protesting at school board meetings .
At the heart of the dispute was a 2021 memo Attorney General Merrick Garland aimed at combatting “a disturbing spike in harassment, intimidation and threats of violence against school administrators, board members, teachers and staff.” The memo setting up meetings with state and local law enforcement agencies sought to “discourage these threats, identify them when they occur and prosecute them when appropriate.”
Some parents in Loudoun County, Virginia, and Saline, Michigan, challenged the policy in federal court by arguing it targeted them for protesting school policies under their First Amendment rights. But judges on the District and Circuit Courts rejected their arguments.
Now the Supreme Court has refused to hear the case.
Garland’s memo became a lightning rod for conservative lawmakers who held hearings asking whether prosecutors and the FBI were targeting parents for voicing their concerns. Lawmakers noted the FBI created “threat tags” to track investigations authorized by the directive.
A 'rogue policy designed to intimidate parent protestors'
In their legal challenges, parents who said they were at the epicenter of peaceful protests argued the threat of prosecution chilled their free speech and they were harmed by being labeled domestic terrorists.
“The alleged facts, taken together, present a ‘plausible’ narrative of a rogue policy designed to intimidate and silence parent protestors at school board meetings,” said the parents’ lawyers Robert Muise and David Yerushalmi.
Is spirited debate about policy protected by the Constitution?
Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar said in a legal filing the lower courts rejected the lawsuit because parents weren’t prosecuted for peaceful protests and the policy didn’t call them domestic terrorists.
“Moreover, the memorandum here makes clear that ‘spirited debate about policy matters is protected under our Constitution,’ and that the memorandum was addressed only to ‘the rise in criminal conduct directed toward school personnel,” Prelogar wrote.
That were Kamala and Biden going agsinst parents...Kamala has not changed since!!!!
Patrick Zimmerman
2h ago
Do you need any more proof than this when the first hurricane Helene came through and destroyed from Florida up to Tennessee all the way up to North Carolina and Comrade Harris sent North Carolina that took the brunt 100 million for hurricane relief but again on the other hand ✋🏻 again Comrade Harris decided to send $156 million dollars to Hezbollah of US taxpayers money now wouldn't that money be better spent on Americans that are struggling that don't have homes, businesses, cars and so much more but she decides to send more money to terrorists then to struggle and Americans that got hit by mother nature but catastrophe and what is Hezbollah going to use with that money build more rockets 🚀🚀🚀💯 now that's who I don't want for my president or should I say dictator as Comrade Harris
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