An excerpt from yesterday's long opinion by Judge Diane Gujarati in Alexander v. Sutton (E.D.N.Y.); read the whole thing for more:
New York Education Law Section 2590-c sets forth that each community district shall be governed by a community district education council ("CEC")…. Plaintiffs declare that they understand that for CEC 14's December 18, 2023 public meeting, CEC 14 adopted "Community Guidelines." … [Among other things, the Guidelines] provide a list of "Absolute no's," as follows:
- This is not a space where we will tolerate antagonistic behavior or any of the following: homophobia, transphobia, misogyny, ableism, racism, or any other forms of oppressive beliefs or behaviors. Anyone who violates this guideline will be removed.
- There will be no name-calling of any community members in this space. If you violate this, you will be removed.
- If you continually disrespect the community, you will be given 2 warnings before being removed.
Plaintiffs further declare that they understand that CEC 14 rewrote its rules as "Community Commitments" in connection with the January 2024 public meeting. The Community Commitments, also referred to as the "Community Agreements," provide [in part]:
- … We reserve the right to remove participants causing discord, spreading misinformation and/or affiliated with hate groups. The DOE may not utilize this practice or standard, but we do.
The court held that many of these restrictions are unconstitutionally overbroad, vague, or viewpoint-based, and held (among other things) that the removal of one plaintiff from CEC likewise violated the First Amendment:
