Protect The 1st Foundation
  • About
    • Leadership
  • Issues
  • Scorecards
  • News
  • Take Action
    • Educational Choice for Children Act
    • PRESS Act
    • Save Oak Flat Act
  • DONATE
  • About
    • Leadership
  • Issues
  • Scorecards
  • News
  • Take Action
    • Educational Choice for Children Act
    • PRESS Act
    • Save Oak Flat Act
  • DONATE
Picture

Is It Fair to Ban a Pro-Life Student Group for Being Too “Political”

6/20/2024

 
Picture
​There are tens of thousands of after-hours student groups in high schools across the country – from those celebrating film, music, chess, or drama to those of a more political or religious nature. At Noblesville High School in Indiana, for example, you could join the Young Democrats, the Young Republicans, the Fellowship for Christian Athletes, or the Gender and Sexuality Alliance. The one group students can no longer join is the Noblesville Students for Life (NSFL).
 
In August 2021 a freshman at Noblesville received initial approval to start a Students for Life chapter, which attracted 30 student sign-ups at the school’s fall activities fair. The following month, the student organizer prepared a poster advertising a club meeting, which featured a photograph of students outside the U.S. Supreme Court holding up life-affirming protest signs.
 
Then Noblesville’s principal “derecognized” the group, calling the poster “inappropriate” and too “political.” Noblesville, apparently, has a policy allowing administrators broad authority to issue prior restraints on student speech, barring “anything political in nature” as well as specific “political stance[s].” What constitutes “political” is entirely undefined and left up the whims of the individual administrator.
 
In December 2021, in coordination with Charitable Allies, the group’s student organizer brought suit against the school district, alleging First Amendment retaliation. The suit also claimed violations of the Equal Access Act, which prohibits discrimination against the political content of student groups meeting outside of class.
 
School administrators have every right to prevent students from engaging in disruptive conduct, but students have every right to express their First Amendment-protected viewpoints after hours.
 
Schools are limited public fora, which may issue viewpoint-neutral restrictions on groups. What they should not do is bar targeted political speech and then make ad hoc, biased determinations of what is unacceptable on a case-by-case basis. How the school found NSFL overly political when the Young Democrats and Young Republicans are permitted to meet and advertise their meetings is unfathomable. 
 
The administrators, of course, now claim they derecognized the club because of the student’s behavior, an argument contradicted by the evidence and the many contextual clues pointed out by the plaintiffs. It seems pretty clear that the principal simply doesn’t want the pro-life viewpoint represented at Noblesville High.
 
Ultimately, a District Court bought the school’s argument. Now the student is appealing to the Seventh Circuit, and this case is receiving legal backing from the Alliance Defending Freedom.
 
We hope that the court will recognize that rules must be neutral and that students don’t relinquish their First Amendment rights at the schoolhouse door – no matter how much some administrators might wish it were so.

Comments are closed.

    Archives

    May 2025
    April 2025
    March 2025
    February 2025
    January 2025
    December 2024
    November 2024
    October 2024
    September 2024
    August 2024
    July 2024
    June 2024
    May 2024
    April 2024
    March 2024
    February 2024
    January 2024
    December 2023
    November 2023
    October 2023
    September 2023
    August 2023
    July 2023
    June 2023
    May 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021

    Categories

    All
    2022 Year In Review
    2023 Year In Review
    2024 Year In Review
    Amicus Briefs
    Analysis
    Book Banning
    Campus Speech
    Censorship
    Congress
    Court Hearings
    Donor Privacy
    Due Process
    First Amendment
    First Amendment Online
    Freedom Of Press
    Freedom Of Religion
    Freedom Of Speech
    Government Transparency
    In The Media
    Journalism
    Law Enforcement
    Legal
    Legislation
    Legislative Agenda
    Letters To Congress
    Motions
    News
    Online Speech
    Opinion
    Parental Rights
    PRESS Act
    PT1 Amicus Briefs
    Save Oak Flat
    School Choice
    SCOTUS
    Section 230
    Speaking Of The First Amendment
    Supreme Court

    RSS Feed

we  the  people.

LET  YOUR  VOICE  BE  HEARD:


ABOUT

Who We Are

​Leadership

ISSUES

1st Amendment

TAKE ACTION

Donate

​Contact Us
® Copyright 2024 Protect The 1st Foundation