In the year 2021, the Chief Legal Officer of the U.S., that is, Attorney General Merrick Garland, sent out an official memorandum kinda instructing the Department of Justice (DOJ), primarily informing them that there was a need for them to look into the activities that were threatening school board members and officials. And just so you know, such instructions were given during a time when the path of school board meetings was in rising tension throughout the country.
Although Garland’s memo was to keep school officials safe from threats, it turned out to be a blazing fire that generated significant backlash. The majority of the parents saw it as a government-led initiative to repress their voice on school policies, you know? So, let’s just go over this Garland School Board Memo Lawsuit quickly and see what is really going on, shall we?
What Happened And When Aka Timeline of Events
On the 21st of October, the White House was brought to Researchers and the parent-led National School Boards Association (NSBA) on Friday by Garland, the Attorney General, to help the NSBA with a “disturbing spike” in reported attendance and violence at board meetings. With time though, the NSBA actually withdrew that statement.
Just so you know, the document discontented many followers of the school, especially in Virginia and Michigan. Like, it was as per the claims that they felt they were falsely represented as criminals or terrorists for simply protesting school policies. Later on, residents from Loudoun County, Virginia, and Saline, Michigan, decided to take the matter to court, arguing that the memo violated their First Amendment rights.
In the latter half of 2022 and the beginning of 2023, lower federal judges rejected these cases. The ruling was made that the memo did not deal with public protests. It was rather a matter of existing threats of violence. Thus, the Department of Justice and FBI were not looking into the relentlessness of parents raising concerns but rather were doing the work of the best protection the local school officials would be getting from the actual external violent threats.
As of March 2023, 22 bits of information aka reports on threats related to school board meetings had been received by federal authorities which also sent some cases to the local police departments. Just so you know though, the FBI did not mention any cases where the parents were peacefully protesting, so that’s that!
The Supreme Court’s Decision
On October 7, 2024, the U.S. Supreme Court decided not to take the appeal from the Virginia and Michigan parents and allowed the lower court rulings to stand. This decision confirmed the legality of the DOJ’s actions as per the memo. The only option left was to accept the decision of the lower court for the parents who were hoping for a reversal, you know?
Legal and Political Debate
Just so you know, through all this, the major point in the lawsuit was whether the memo of Garland violated the rights of parents to free speech. Parents contended that the memo was part of a comprehensive “rogue policy” that caused them to be silent at school board meetings. They felt they were being treated as criminals just because they mentioned their disagreements with school policies, which is not fair at all if you think about it for a sec.
On the other hand, the DOJ, in conjunction with FBI Director Christopher Wray, affirmed that the memo was not meant to infringe on free speech, but it was the answer to the violent threats. So as per them, they are not suppressing or have any intent to suppress free speech, not just that though, they also stated that their main target was to tackle the threats rather than peaceful protests or disagreements over school policies.
