Montgomery, Ala. (WDNews) – Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall has joined 16 other state attorneys general in backing South Carolina’s law that limits public schools from teaching what they describe as “racially or sexually divisive ideologies.”
“Public schools are funded by the public to serve the public’s interest,” Marshall stated. “But as elected officials in Alabama, South Carolina, and elsewhere have recognized, many of these schools have been using taxpayer dollars to indoctrinate children in divisive and destructive radical ideologies. States have the constitutional authority to put a stop to that sort of indoctrination.”
The coalition filed an amicus brief in a lawsuit brought by the South Carolina NAACP, two authors, a teacher, and a group of students, who argue the law violates their First Amendment rights. The attorneys general, however, say the issue boils down to the role of state government in public education.
“The selection, curation, and placement of educational materials in public schools is a form of government speech that does not violate any individual’s free speech rights,” the brief states.
They further argue that there is no constitutional requirement for public schools to carry or teach specific viewpoints. “A citizen’s right to receive information under the First Amendment is not a right to compel or extract information from the government at the taxpayers’ expense,” the brief says. “Accordingly, there is no First Amendment right to compel state-funded schools to implement certain course curricula or require public school libraries to stock their bookshelves with inflammatory and prejudicial materials.”
The states maintain that their actions do not block access to information but rather limit its availability in state-funded educational settings. They have asked the court to deny the plaintiffs’ motion for a preliminary injunction and to dismiss the case.
Joining Marshall and South Carolina in the filing are attorneys general from Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, and West Virginia.
