
On January 17, 2025, the National Women’s Law Center and Public Justice, joined by 24 civil rights organizations along with Hogan Lovells US LLP, filed an amicus brief in the First Circuit in Local 8027, AFT-New Hampshire v. Edelblut. In this case, public-school educators and their union sued to challenge a New Hampshire law that bans teaching about several concepts, including race- and sex-based discrimination. The district court agreed with the plaintiffs, holding that this law is an impermissible viewpoint-based restriction on speech that does not provide fair warning to educators of what it prohibits and allows for discriminatory enforcement. New Hampshire has now appealed to the First Circuit.
Our amicus brief explains that the district court was right to say this censorship law is unconstitutional, and that the First Circuit should uphold that decision. We argued that the law has caused profound harms to teachers and students, including stopping teachers from teaching about race and LGBTQIA+ issues or assigning works by Black authors and about Black people. It has made teachers afraid to allow classroom discussion of discrimination or to intervene in race-, sex-, and sexual-orientation-based bullying incidents. It has, in short, made New Hampshire schools more hostile environments for students of color and LGBTQIA+ students.