First Amendment
The First Amendment guarantees free speech and religious liberty to all citizens. Compelled speech policies, such as pronoun mandates, are a violation of free speech. The Title IX regulation will harm both of these rights. Related areas of concern include bias reporting systems and DEI policies.
PRONOUN MANDATES
Once the legal definition of “sex” is expanded to include gender identity, students can demand that teachers and other students call them by their preferred pronouns. But compelled speech is not free speech. In a Wisconsin case, a 13-year-old boy refused to use a fellow student’s preferred “they” and “them” pronouns, resulting in a Title IX complaint against him.
Based on its unlawful 2021 Title IX regulation, the Office for Civil Rights has begun to enforce pronoun mandates:
- New College, Florida: “The federal Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights is looking into conservative activist Christopher Rufo for, among other things, ‘misgendering’ a diversity official at Florida’s New College.”
- Taft College, California: “OCR’s investigation also reflected that the college received repeated notice that the student alleged experiencing almost daily harassment including through faculty misgendering the student, but the college did not respond to these allegations to confirm their occurrence or redress the harm the student reported experiencing.”
Legislation
- As of 2023: Laws banning pronoun mandates have been passed in 10 states: AL, AR, FL, IA, IN, KY, MT, ND, TN, and UT.
- As of August 2024, laws had been enacted in two more states: LA and ID.
- Florida model law
RELIGIOUS LIBERTY
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Rachel N. Morrison: Education Department Proposes Rescinding Religious Student Group Protections
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First Liberty Institute: Religious Liberty Concerns with Title IX
- Legal Victory: U.S. Judge Upholds Title IX Exemption for Religious Schools
FREE SPEECH
The proposed rule would curtail free speech by broadening the definition of sexual harassment to include “unwelcome sex-based conduct” that can be evaluated “subjectively and objectively.”
Reports
- House Committee on Education: Freedom of Speech and Its Protection on College Campuses
- FIRE: 2022-2023 College Free Speech Rankings
Legislation
- Campus free speech laws have been enacted in 23 states: AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, FL, GA, IN, IA, KY, LA, MO, MT, NC, ND, OH, OK, SD, TN, TX, UT, VA, and WV.
- Model Policies:
- American Legislative Exchange Council: FORUM Act
- FIRE: Model Campus Free Expression Act
- Goldwater Institute and Speech First: Freedom From Indoctrination Act
- Speech First: Protecting Students from Bias Reporting Systems
Lawsuits
- FIRE: Current Lawsuits
- Favorable Decisions:
OTHER TITLE IX PROBLEM AREAS
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