DEFENDING EDUCATION, fka Parents Defending Education v. OLENTANGY LOCAL SCHOOL DISTRICT BOARD OF EDUCATION; MARK T. RAIFF, in his official capacity as Superintendent of Olentangy Local School District; PETER STERN, in his official capacity as Olentangy’s Assistant Director of Equity and Inclusion; RANDY WRIGHT, in his official capacity as Olentangy’s Chief of Administrative Services; KEVIN DABERKOW, in his official capacity as a member of the Olentangy Board of Education; BRANDON LESTER, in his official capacity as a member of the Olentangy Board of Education; KEVIN O’BRIEN, in his official capacity as a member of the Olentangy Board of Education; LIBBY WALLICK, in her official capacity as a member of the Olentangy Board of Education; LAKESHA WYSE, in her official capacity as a member of the Olentangy Board of Education - Articles

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Posted by: Azya Thornton on Nov 6, 2025

Court: 6th Circuit Court (Published Opinions)

Attorneys 1: ARGUED EN BANC: Cameron T. Norris, CONSOVOY MCCARTHY PLLC, Arlington, Virginia, for Appellant.

Attorneys 2: Jaime A. Santos, GOODWIN PROCTER LLP, Washington, D.C., for Appellees. T. Elliot Gaiser, OFFICE OF THE OHIO ATTORNEY GENERAL, Columbus, Ohio, for Amici Curiae.

Attorneys 3: ON SUPPLEMENTAL BRIEF: Cameron T. Norris, J. Michael Connolly, Thomas S. Vaseliou, CONSOVOY MCCARTHY PLLC, Arlington, Virginia, Emmett E. Robinson, ROBINSON LAW FIRM LLC, Cleveland, Ohio, for Appellant.

Attorneys 4: Bartholomew T. Freeze, Genevieve M. Hoffman, FREUND, FREEZE & ARNOLD, Columbus, Ohio, Jessica K. Philemond, Sandra R. McIntosh, Mitchell L. Stith, SCOTT SCRIVEN LLP, Columbus, Ohio, for Appellees.

Attorneys 5: N AMICUS BRIEF: T. Elliot Gaiser, OFFICE OF THE OHIO ATTORNEY GENERAL, Columbus, Ohio, Joseph D. Spate, OFFICE OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL OF SOUTH CAROLINA, Columbia, South Carolina, Kayla A. Toney, FIRST LIBERTY INSTITUTE, Washington, D.C., Brett R. Nolan, INSTITUTE FOR FREE SPEECH, Washington, D.C., Adam E. Schulman, HAMILTON LINCOLN LAW INSTITUTE, Washington, D.C., Ilya Shapiro, MANHATTAN INSTITUTE, New York, New York, David J. Carey, AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION OF OHIO FOUNDATION, Columbus, Ohio, Amy R. Gilbert, Freda J. Levenson, AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION OF OHIO FOUNDATION, Cleveland, Ohio, J. Marc Wheat, ADVANCING AMERICAN FREEDOM, INC., Washington, D.C., Benjamin Isgur, SOUTHEASTERN LEGAL FOUNDATION, Roswell, Georgia, Tyson C. Langhofer, Matthew W. Hoffmann, ALLIANCE DEFENDING FREEDOM, Lansdowne, Virginia, John J. Bursch, ALLIANCE DEFENDING FREEDOM, Washington, D.C., Talmadge Butts, FOUNDATION FOR MORAL LAW, Gallant, Alabama, Kerry Lee Morgan, THE LONANG INSTITUTE, Wyandotte, Michigan, Donald A. Daugherty, Jr., DEFENSE OF FREEDOM INSTITUTE, Washington, D.C., William J. Olson, WILLIAM J. OLSON, P.C., Vienna, Virginia, Robert L. Corn-Revere, FOUNDATION FOR INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS AND EXPRESSION, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Scott C. Peters, Sherrie C. Massey, Daniel R. Shisler, PETERS KALAIL & MARKAKIS CO., L.P.A., Cleveland, Ohio, Jaime A. Santos, GOODWIN PROCTER LLP, Washington, D.C., Karen L. Loewy, LAMBDA LEGAL DEFENSE AND EDUCATION FUND, INC., Washington, D.C., Mark P. Herron, HERRON LAW OFFICES, Lyndhurst, Ohio, Paul Giorgianni, GIORGIANNI LAW LLC, Columbus, Ohio, for Amici Curiae.

Judge(s): SUTTON, Chief Judge; BATCHELDER, MOORE, CLAY, GRIFFIN, KETHLEDGE, STRANCH, THAPAR, BUSH, LARSEN, NALBANDIAN, READLER, MURPHY, DAVIS, MATHIS, BLOOMEKATZ, and RITZ,

Court Appealed: United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio at Columbus

MURPHY, Circuit Judge. An Ohio public school district bars its students from referring to transgender and nonbinary classmates using the pronouns that match their biological sex if the classmates prefer to go by different pronouns. The plaintiff in this case has parent and student members who believe that a person’s sex is immutable. The members want to express this view by using biological pronouns. And they believe that they would convey a falsehood—that a person’s gender is fluid—if they use preferred pronouns. So the plaintiff challenged the school district’s speech ban on behalf of its members under the First Amendment’s Free Speech Clause. This case about pronouns pits two important interests against each other. On the one hand, the school district has prohibited speech (biological pronouns) that expresses a message on a matter of pressing public concern. And because the district requires other speech (preferred pronouns) that expresses a competing view, it has discriminated based on its students’ viewpoints. Its approach thus raises serious free-speech concerns. On the other hand, the school district rightly responds that it has a duty to protect all students—including transgender and nonbinary students— from bullying and harassment. And this protection, while necessarily restricting speech, does not violate the Free Speech Clause. So which of these competing concerns should prevail in this case? The Supreme Court’s cases provide a clear answer. A school district may not restrict personal speech on matters of public concern unless the speech would “materially and substantially disrupt” school activities or infringe the legal “rights of others” in the school community. Tinker v. Des Moines Indep. Cmty. Sch. Dist., 393 U.S. 503, 513 (1969). In this case’s current posture, the school district has fallen far short of meeting this demanding standard. It introduced no evidence that the use of biological pronouns would disrupt school functions or qualify as harassment under Ohio law. Our society continues to debate whether biological pronouns are appropriate or offensive—just as it continues to debate many other issues surrounding transgender rights. The school district may not skew this debate by forcing one side to change the way it conveys its message or by compelling it to express a different view. We thus reverse and remand for the entry of an appropriately tailored preliminary injunction barring the district from punishing students for the commonplace use of biological pronouns. Yet nothing we say here forecloses the district from enforcing its anti-harassment policies against the abuse of transgender students just as it enforces those policies against the abuse of all other students.