Republican high school students can criticize abortion proposal during morning announcements, federal judge rules



Republican students at one Michigan high school may issue a morning announcement that criticizes a statewide abortion proposal on the ballot this year, a federal judge has ruled.

On Friday, Judge Paul D. Borman of the Eastern District of Michigan determined that administrators at Skyline High School in Ann Arbor, Michigan, violated the First and Fourteenth Amendment rights of conservative students when they forbade the students to make an announcement that denounced Proposal 3, a proposal on the Michigan ballot this year that would make abortion a state constitutional right.

On October 21, the Skyline Republican Club and its president, a minor whose name has not been given, submitted the following message for the morning announcements:

"Attention Students: Are you interested in joining our efforts to protect the health of women and children by joining us in our fight to defeat Proposal 3? If proposal 3 is passed it would eliminate health and safety regulations, legalize late term and partial birth abortion, no longer require physicians to perform abortions, and eliminate informed consent laws. If so, email us at skylinerepublicanclub@gmail.com."

However, school employee Laurie Adams told the group that day that their announcement would not be read because of its "political nature." School secretary Jefferson Bilsborrow reaffirmed that decision. Principal Cory McElmeel did as well in an email dated October 28.

Administrators still refused to air the message, even after the club later eliminated the phrase "by joining us in our fight to defeat Proposal 3," which could be viewed as a political call to action. As a result, David Nielsen, his son, and the group sued the school for violating their First Amendment rights.

Judge Borman sided with the plaintiffs, arguing that the school sought "to silence" their "appropriate speech" against the proposal, even as the school had either directly or indirectly approved of student demonstrations in favor of it.

Court documents indicate that school administrators knew that a student chapter of the National Organization of Women had organized a "walk-out" in favor of Proposal 3 on school property during school hours on Nov. 7. "Permitting students in favor of Proposal 3 to cut classes, and to demonstrate on school property in favor of Proposal 3," while at the same time rejecting the anti-Proposal 3 message from the Republican Club because of its "political nature," violated the club members' "rights under the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution," Borman wrote on Friday.

With the midterm elections just days away, Borman ordered the school to read the amended version of the message, the one without the political call to action, during morning announcements on Nov. 7.

The Thomas More Law Center, an Ann Arbor legal nonprofit that represented the plaintiffs in this case, is celebrating the ruling as a victory for students and free speech.

"The Constitution protects a student’s right to have a different viewpoint from others and share it within the walls of a public school," stated TMLC attorney Erin Mersino, who is handling the case. "How else will students learn tolerance toward opinions to which they disagree or how to thrive in our pluralistic society? The Supreme Court cautioned against viewpoint discrimination in the schools, warning it creates 'enclaves of totalitarianism.'"

"Public schools across our nation are stifling the free speech of conservative students and organizations," added TMLC president Richard Thompson. "We are working to defend their constitutional rights — rights which the Supreme Court so famously said, they do not lose by merely entering the schoolhouse gate."

Michigan Governor Debate Becomes a Knife Fight

Michigan Governor Debate Becomes a Knife Fight

Transgender surgery for kids without parental consent may become constitutional right in Michigan if Gov. Whitmer has her way: Legal analyst

Transgender surgery for kids without parental consent may become constitutional right in Michigan if Gov. Whitmer has her way: Legal analyst



A proposal on the Michigan ballot next month would reportedly enshrine in the state constitution transgender care, up to and including sterilization surgery, for minors, and parents would be powerless to stop it. And Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D), who is running for reelection, has vowed to "fight like hell" to make sure it passes.

Right to "sterilization," hidden in plain sight

According to the alarming legal analysis of Margot Cleveland of the Federalist, the so-called "gender affirming" care Proposal 3 would ensure for minors is buried in vague language about "reproductive freedom," deceiving voters into believing that the proposal relates to abortion only. But the ambiguous language of the proposal, carefully crafted by Planned Parenthood and other "gender affirming" and abortion outlets, incorporates children as well as adults and deliberately excludes parents from interfering, Cleveland said.

The opening paragraph of Proposal 3, entitled the "Reproductive Freedom for All" initiative, reportedly reveals just how broadly such "reproductive freedom" would extend:

Every individual has a fundamental right to reproductive freedom, which entails the right to make and effectuate decisions about all matters relating to pregnancy, including but not limited to prenatal care, childbirth, postpartum care, contraception, sterilization, abortion care, miscarriage management, and infertility care. An individual’s right to reproductive freedom shall not be denied, burdened, nor infringed upon unless justified by a compelling state interest achieved by the least restrictive means. (Emphasis added.)

Cleveland claims that the term "individual" applies to men and women, boys and girls, regardless of age. And because the proposal later says that the state may not "discriminate in the protection or enforcement of this fundamental right," parents would no longer have any legal recourse, she said, to contest the "sterilization" demands of their minor children, since denying them such "care" based on their young age would be an act of discrimination.

And lest parents believe that other preexisting parental notification laws would supersede this amendment, Cleveland also warned that such parental notification laws regarding abortion have already been ruled unconstitutional in states like Alaska and Florida. California, Massachusetts, and New Jersey have likewise curtailed parental rights regarding abortion, she said.

An irreversible medical "experiment" on the ballot

In an effort to combat Whitmer's "fight like hell" abortion and reported gender-reassignment fervor, Bishop Earl Boyea and the Diocese of Lansing have launched their own "Fight Like Heaven" initiative, intended to provide Michigan voters what they say is the truth about the language of Proposal 3 and to encourage people of all faiths to pray that the proposal fails.
As part of the "Fight Like Heaven" effort, the diocese has enlisted experts in many related fields, including medicine, to speak about the evil it believes is buried within the proposal. One such expert, Dr. Patrick Lappert, a renowned plastic surgeon from Alabama with over 25 years of experience, has sounded the alarm that Proposal 3 and others like it would inflict irreversible medical damage on young people.
"Essentially, it’s guaranteed that your child is going to be rendered sterile by these interventions, such as puberty blockage and cross-sex hormones," Dr. Lappert asserted, "and that is something your child cannot fully understand nor give informed consent to and, certainly, something no parent would want."
Lappert further called puberty blockers "a public experiment" with unknown long-term effects.
Finally, Lappert suggested that the ultimate goal of the proposal is not the well-being of children but the destruction of families.
"The amendment asserts that the state somehow has more wisdom than the family that knows, and has loved, this child for all their life," he said. "That's a terrible idea. It's a terrible idea that must be rejected."

Abortion on demand

If the amendment to the state constitution passes, the use of the amendment to obtain medical transgender procedures for minors would be part of the broader enshrinement of abortion on demand with no restrictions, for women and minor girls alike.

Whitmer and others advocating for this proposal have argued that Proposal 3 would merely restore the abortion rights women had for 50 years under Roe, but Cleveland and Bishop Boyea both vehemently deny that assertion.

"If passed, the constitutional amendment would create an extreme regime in Michigan of abortion on demand, at any time, for any reason, without informed or parental consent, and paid for by taxpayers," writes Cleveland.

"The Reproductive Freedom for All initiative is the most extreme abortion proposal this country has ever witnessed," Boyea added. "Based on the wording of the proposed amendment, this initiative seeks to enshrine abortion up to, and including, the day of birth in our state constitution. ...

"It will also likely prohibit parental consent rights if your child wishes to pursue – or is being pressured into pursuing – medical procedures or chemical treatments intended to change the outward appearance of his or her biological sex," he added.

In other words, Cleveland argues, Proposal 3 in Michigan seeks to sacrifice "the children of the state — both born and unborn" through unfettered access to abortion and transgender treatment.

Whitmer's office did not respond to request for comment.