BUZZ
‘Your Honors, free speech is not poison’
The New Hampshire high school parents who wore “XX” wristbands to protest boys participating in girls’ sports finally have won a declaratory judgment — along with $275,000 in attorney’s fees.
Two years after Bow High School parents had the police called on them for wearing the wristbands and then losing in court a year later, the First Circuit Court of Appeals late this summer unanimously rebuked U.S. District Court Judge Steven McAuliffe who had ruled for the school district.
Bow School District Superintendent Marcy Kelley had claimed the wristbands were “threatening, harassing, [and] intimidating,” Bow HS Principal Matt Fisk said they were “hateful” and as “anti-trans,” and the district’s lawyer referred to the them as “poison.”
Judge McAuliffe declared the wristbands “can reasonably be understood as directly assaulting those who identify as transgender women.”
Before the First Circuit, however, the Institute for Free Speech’s attorney told the judges “Your Honors, free speech is not poison.”
Following the First Circuit’s remand of the case back to McAuliffe “for further proceedings” consistent with its opinion, the district and parents settled last week.
The Institute for Free Speech notes
… the Bow School District has agreed to a judgment declaring that it violated the plaintiffs’ rights by barring them from wearing the wristbands at the game. U.S…. The settlement also provides $275,000 in attorneys’ fees and costs.
The judgment declares that the plaintiffs “have a First Amendment right to silently wear pink wristbands bearing the XX symbol on the sidelines, in the spectator’s area, or in the parking lot of any Bow District sporting event.” It binds the district and its Board of Education, and it remains in effect even if the district amends its policies.
The ruling further notes that while the district may amend its policies and “issu[e] further implementing regulations,” the settlement “will remain in effect after any such amendment or issuance.”
MORE: Oregon HS track coach fired for proposing ‘open’ division for transgenders sues district
