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DOJ Declares School Dissent Protected Under First Amendment
Townhall.com ^ | 13 September A.D. 2025 | Scott McClallen

Posted on 09/13/2025 7:48:45 PM PDT by lightman

Attorney General Pamela Bondi issued a memorandum to all United States Attorneys highlighting the Department of Justice’s policy to prevent and act upon violations of parental rights and First Amendment liberties in educational settings.

Bondi directed United States Attorneys to work with federal, state, and local partners to identify and respond to credible threats against parents whose federal rights have been violated.

20250908-AG-Bondi-Memo by scott.mcclallen

"The First Amendment guarantees the right of every citizen to speak freely, assemble peaceably, and petition the government for redress of grievances-including at public school board meetings," the memo said. "These rights do not yield to political trends or bureaucratic convenience. While schools must maintain order, such authority cannot be used as a pretext to silence dissent or punish parents for expressing their views.

The new memo says it will protect the right of parents to dissent during school board meetings.

"Let me be clear: when school board members, administrators, and other government officials threaten law-abiding parents, they can and will be held accountable," the letter said.

For example, when Michigan mom Sandra Hernden criticized her school board for only providing remote learning to her son in 2020 who has special needs, the school board reported Hernden as a possible domestic terrorist to her employer and the federal government, according to a lawsuit.

2022.09.29 Complaint (Filed) by scott.mcclallen

In 2021, the National School Boards Association sent a letter to Former Former President Joe Biden that compared parents who opposed COVID regulations such as masks as “domestic terrorists.”

2021 09 29 NSBA Letter to President Biden Concerning Threats to Public Schools and School Board Members 92921 by scott.mcclallen

Under the leadership of President Trump and General Bondi, parents’ First Amendment rights – and their “fundamental right to direct the moral and religious education of their children” – will be protected from unlawful attacks.

United States Attorney Ellis Boyle stated, “Here in the Eastern District of North Carolina, parents should feel safe to raise their children in accord with their religion and customs and as the Supreme Court recently recognized in Mahmoud v. Taylor to protect them from the radical ideology that has infiltrated our schools. We will protect parental rights when parents interact with their children’s schools. To promote this and inform parents across the District, we shared a copy of the Attorney General’s memo with all county boards of education in the EDNC, the North Carolina Department of Education, the Speaker of the North Carolina House of Representatives, and the President Pro Tempore of the North Carolina Senate. Let me be very clear – here in Eastern North Carolina, we fully support the Attorney General’s policy, and we will act quickly to enforce it. Conspiring to violate constitutional rights is a crime under federal law. We will enforce these laws.”


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; Government
KEYWORDS: arth; civilrights; dissent; doj; education; freespeech; parentalrights; schoolboards
I voted for this--but the First Amendment should not require backing from DOJ memos.

Many (most?) school administrators have little or no understanding of Constitutional law.

1 posted on 09/13/2025 7:48:45 PM PDT by lightman
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To: lightman
 
 
Education is one of the institutions captured by the communistas which they consider "theirs", to do with as they will and fortify against input from outside their sphere of influence and power. There is a whole lot going on to damage and detach that power from their grasp.
 
 

2 posted on 09/13/2025 8:00:54 PM PDT by lapsus calami (What's that stink? Code Pink ! ! And their buddy Murtha, too!)
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To: lightman

Any moves against public education officials will have them declaring themselves to the victims not to mention the students I’m certain of that.


3 posted on 09/13/2025 8:03:48 PM PDT by Nextrush (FREEDOM IS EVERYBODY'S BUSINESS, REMEMBER REV; NIEMOLLER)
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To: lightman
At a school board meeting a father was fighting against a transgender policy. The Father got into an argument with one of the other parents when the police tried to grab his arm and he pulled away and they hit him and arrested him. The other parent didn't believe his daughter was raped in the schools bathroom by a "gender fluid" boy wearing a skirt.

https://youtu.be/oncgLfJ2AHc?si=q4VVJz4pHhAb81wt

The school board and sheriff should have been fired.
4 posted on 09/13/2025 8:15:53 PM PDT by where's_the_Outrage? (Drain the Swamp. Build the Wall)
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To: lightman
Many (most?) school administrators have little or no understanding of Constitutional law.

Not a job requirement. But any LE agency, prosecutor or Judge could have backed them up, that is an issue that should be pursued. And anyone in the DOJ who persecuted parents under such policies, all the way to the Attorney General, should be prosecuted.

5 posted on 09/13/2025 8:29:45 PM PDT by ETCM (“There is no security, no safety, in the appeasement of evil.” — Ronald Reagan)
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To: ETCM

Constitutional Law 101 SHOULD be a job requirement for the last refuge of despots and tyrants.


6 posted on 09/13/2025 8:35:12 PM PDT by lightman (Beat the Philly fraud machine the Amish did onest, ja? Nein, zweimal they did already!)
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To: lightman

The memo is to send a very clear message to school administrators and school boards. Shouldn’t be needed, but it puts school administrators and boards on notice.


7 posted on 09/13/2025 9:19:10 PM PDT by WASCWatch ( WASC)
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To: WASCWatch

Decades overdue, IMHO.


8 posted on 09/13/2025 9:21:34 PM PDT by lightman (Beat the Philly fraud machine the Amish did onest, ja? Nein, zweimal they did already!)
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To: lapsus calami

Yes. The Left does NOT want to lose its monopoly on impressionable minds.


9 posted on 09/13/2025 10:01:52 PM PDT by JennysCool ("It's easier to fool people than to convince them that they have been fooled." - Mark Twain)
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To: ETCM

Deprivation of rights under color of law is not prosecuted nearly enough.


10 posted on 09/13/2025 11:35:22 PM PDT by FreedomPoster (Islam delenda estAnd )
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To: lightman
"I voted for this--but the First Amendment should not require backing from DOJ memos.

Most heartily agree. Yet does the memo mean the Trump DOJ will defend antisemitism as protected dissent?

11 posted on 09/14/2025 5:29:15 AM PDT by buckalfa (More chaos and disruption please.)
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To: lightman

For those who claim Bondi’s sitting on her thumbs - she’s been multitasking all over the place....

“”The First Amendment guarantees the right of every citizen to speak freely, assemble peaceably, and petition the government for redress of grievances-including at public school board meetings,” the memo said. “These rights do not yield to political trends or bureaucratic convenience. While schools must maintain order, such authority cannot be used as a pretext to silence dissent or punish parents for expressing their views.”


12 posted on 09/14/2025 5:30:08 AM PDT by trebb (So many fools - so little time...)
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To: lapsus calami; lightman
Education is one of the institutions captured by the communistas which they consider "theirs", to do with as they will and fortify against input from outside their sphere of influence and power.


13 posted on 09/14/2025 10:48:17 AM PDT by Albion Wilde (RIP, Charlie. Say hi to Andrew Breitbart. God protect your family. Justice for Charlie Kirk!)
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