So the Tenth Circuit held Wednesday, in Black Emergency Response Team v. Drummond; a short excerpt from the opinion, by Judge Gregory Phillips, joined by Judge Harris Hartz:
Under subsection B of Oklahoma H.B. 1775, public-school employees may not "require or make part of a course" any of eight prohibited "concepts." Each concept is a principle that, if taught, would advocate race or sex discrimination. {Those eight concepts match eight "[d]ivisive concepts" from an earlier federal executive order, which forbade "promot[ing] race or sex stereotyping or scapegoating in the Federal workforce."} If a school employee violates subsection B, his or her license or certificate may be suspended or even revoked. …
As we interpret it, subsection B prohibits school employees from teaching the prohibited concepts as correct principles or requiring teachers to do so. For example, a teacher can't teach that "one race or sex is inherently superior to another race or sex," and an administrator can't require a teacher to teach that "an individual's moral character is necessarily determined by his or her race or sex." Though the plaintiffs fear that subsection B prohibits educators from discussing the eight concepts in the abstract or in connection with historical or popular figures, the statute's language does not support such a broad interpretation. Under subsection B's plain text, the plaintiffs aren't likely to show that subsection B is vague….
Subsection B reads:
