Amicus Brief: E.D. v. Noblesville

E.D., a minor, and her parents sued the Noblesville (IN) School District, its superintendent, high school principal, and other officials for derecognizing the Students for Life group. E.D. Worked hard to start the chapter, getting a summer job to fund its launch, securing an adviser, and meeting with her principal. Initially, the group had been recognized by the school as one of the school's many student-interest clubs, which are student-driven and student-led, and not school-sponsored.

Then, the chapter proposed advertising a meeting with a flyer with a photo of students in front of SCOTUS holding signs that said “Defund Planned Parenthood,” along with the meeting time, place, and location. E.D. and her mother met with an administrator, who told E.D. she couldn’t post the flyer because it was “political.” That same day, the principal sent E.D.’s mother an email revoking the club’s status, claiming that “[a] poster cannot contain any content that is political” and expressing his doubts that the club was student-driven. After plaintiffs sued, the principal re-recognized the group. The Seventh Circuit ultimately found for the school, holding that it had sufficient justification for derecognizing the group because a reasonable observer could conclude the school was endorsing the group's political message.

The Manhattan Institute previously filed two briefs in the lower courts. Now at the Supreme Court, MI has joined with Students for Life of America, Indiana Family Institute, and the Upper Midwest Law Center on a brief supporting E.D.'s petition for review. We argue that the lower court's decision makes censorship of student groups much easier, which is particularly bad at a time of heated political divisions when many student groups like Students for Life are in fact being censored. Moreover, the Supreme Court should clarify the test for whether a school is perceived as endorsing a club's speech, and it should require a showing of actual disruption of the school environment to censor student speech. In the current political climate, school censorship of student groups is simply too easy and too common. 

Ilya Shapiro is a senior fellow and director of Constitutional Studies at the Manhattan Institute. Follow him on Twitter here.

Trevor Burrus is a legal policy fellow at the Manhattan Institute.

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