No law “is immune from the demands of the Constitution.” So wrote Justice Neil Gorsuch in the Supreme Court’s 2023 majority opinion in 303 Creative v. Elenis. In 303 Creative, the Court determined that the First Amendment prohibited Colorado from forcing a website designer to express messages with which she disagreed. The First Amendment, the Court noted, protects both the right to speak and the right not to speak. Disappointingly, public schools seem to have forgotten the Court’s unambiguous dictate. Despite various executive orders and federal guidance to the contrary, too many have perpetuated transgender “anti-harassment” policies that force gender-critical students to communicate messages contrary to their beliefs.
This isn’t just bad educational administration — it is unconstitutional and displays gross ignorance of basic First Amendment principles. In West Virginia v. Barnette, the Supreme Court wrote that “if there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation, it is that no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion or force citizens to confess by word or act their faith therein.”
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