Federal judge grants preliminary injunction in Arkansas LEARNS ‘indoctrination’ suit

A federal judge on Tuesday granted in part and denied in part plaintiffs’ motion for a preliminary injunction in a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of a section of the LEARNS Act that bans “indoctrination” in public schools. 

Little Rock Central High School parents, students and teachers who filed the lawsuit against Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders and Education Secretary Jacob Oliva claim the “indoctrination” ban in Section 16 of the LEARNS Act violates the First and Fourteenth Amendment, which guarantee a right to freedom of speech and due process.

Championed by Sanders, the LEARNS Act made sweeping changes to Arkansas’ education system, including increasing the state’s minimum teacher salary to $50,000 and creating a school voucher program.

In Tuesday’s order, U.S. District Judge Lee Rudofsky wrote that the teacher plaintiffs claim Section 16 of the LEARNS Act is so vague it violates due process. 

The teachers are self-censoring what and how they teach because they don’t want to suffer the consequences of accidentally running afoul of the law, while the student plaintiffs contend the self-censorship is depriving them of being taught things they would have learned otherwise if Section 16 weren’t in existence, he wrote.

Rudofsky ordered that the state defendants, except the governor, are enjoined for the duration of the litigation from enforcing Section 16 in a manner that disciplines or prevents the teacher plaintiffs from teaching about Critical Race Theory or using it to teach other topics. 

However, Rudofsky said the teachers may be disciplined if either of them “compels a student to adopt, affirm, or profess a belief in a theory, ideology or idea (including Critical Race Theory) that conflicts with the principle of equal protection under the law” and holds that people of a specific group or characteristic protected by law “are inherently superior or inferior” to another or that they should be discriminated against because of it.

Federal judge schedules hearing in Arkansas LEARNS lawsuit

When it comes to compelling a student, Rudofsky noted that compulsion requires speech or actions such as a teacher threatening to grade on the basis of whether a student accepts or rejects a theory or a teacher denigrating students because of their agreement or disagreement with the theory. 

While Rudofsky wrote that the order “should give comfort” that Section 16 doesn’t prohibit educators from teaching about or using Critical Race Theory, “the Court acknowledges that Section 16 does not define Critical Race Theory,” so the teacher plaintiffs’ concerns are not “frivolous” and indeed “quite reasonable.”

Because plaintiffs only challenge the constitutionality of the enforcement and implementation of Section 16, the preliminary injunction does not extend beyond that, Rudofsky said.

“It does not reach the enforcement and implementation of the Governor’s Executive Order to Prohibit Indoctrination and Critical Race Theory in Schools,” he wrote. “And it does not reach policies and conduct by local school boards so long as the policies and conduct are not driven by Section 16.”

Sanders signed an executive order banning “indoctrination” in public schools on her first day in office. Similar language was later incorporated into the LEARNS Act. 

Attorney General Tim Griffin issued a statement late Tuesday praising Rudofsky’s order.

“Today’s decision confirms what I’ve said all along. Arkansas law doesn’t prohibit teaching the history of segregation, the civil rights movement, or slavery,” Griffin said. “I’m pleased that the District Court entirely rejected the Plaintiffs’ vagueness claims. And the very limited injunction merely prohibits doing what Arkansas was never doing in the first place. I look forward to continuing our enforcement of the statute as written rather than as Plaintiffs would choose to wrongly interpret it.”

Plaintiffs’ attorney David Hinojosa, director of the Educational Opportunities Project at the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, in a statement Tuesday night said “the court’s ruling makes it clear that students’ right to receive information and ideas was violated.”

“Judge Rudofsky has issued a partial injunction ensuring that the State does not arbitrarily enforce the LEARNS Act against teachers in the case in a way that would unlawfully deny students’ their right to information,” Hinojosa said. “The court’s ruling has essentially gutted Arkansas’ classroom censorship law to render the law virtually meaningless.”

Hinojosa said Sanders and Oliva “had already walked back the law in their response briefing” by stating that Critical Race Theory could be taught in Arkansas’ classrooms.

“Judge Rudofsky further narrows the scope of the LEARNS Act so that students won’t be forced to learn a false version of this country’s history of discrimination or continuing struggles with racial justice,” he said. “The ruling should provide teachers greater comfort in teaching the truth, and challenging students to broaden their perspectives.”

Background

On March 25, civil rights attorneys Mike Laux and Austin Porter Jr. filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas on behalf of three Little Rock Central High students, their parents and AP African American Studies teacher Ruthie Walls.

The suit stems from an AP African American Studies course being piloted in six Arkansas schools, including Central High, that came under scrutiny by the state education department after Sanders issued her executive order on “indoctrination.”

The state education department abruptly removed the advanced placement course from its list of approved courses days before the start of the 2023-2024 school year last August. Although students were allowed to continue taking the course, it would not count toward graduation credit.

Plaintiffs filed a motion for preliminary injunction and a request for expedited briefing and consideration on April 12. 

An amended complaint also filed on April 12 removed an unnamed parent and student as plaintiffs and added the Arkansas State Conference of the NAACP and high school debate teacher, Colton Gilbert. 

Members of the Arkansas State Board of Education were added as defendants, joining Sanders and Oliva. 

The amended complaint argues the portion of the law banning “indoctrination” should be void for vagueness, contains content- and viewpoint-based discrimination and discriminates on the basis of race.