PRESS RELEASE
Kobach leads 14-state coalition in support of students' First Amendment rights
TOPEKA – (March 9, 2026) – Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach led fourteen states in urging the U.S. Supreme Court to vindicate the rights of a high school student. The student was forbidden from hanging meeting flyers for her pro-life student group because the flyers espoused pro-life views.
“As Charlie Kirk recognized, respectful and non-disruptive debate and discussion in school is the American way,” Kobach said. “It is unacceptable and unconstitutional for a public high school to prevent a pro-life student group from peacefully advertising its meetings with flyers that convey the group’s values.”
In this case, a high school student attempted to hang flyers in her school that advertised her student-led, pro-life club. The school objected because the flyers contained pro-life statements that the school considered “political.” The student sued, alleging violations of the First Amendment, and a federal district court and appellate court ruled against her. In justifying the school’s censorship, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit found that the flyers should be considered the school’s speech (as opposed to the student’s speech) and were subject to more school control.
In an amicus brief filed with the Supreme Court on March 4, Kobach and the coalition urge the Court to grant certiorari and reverse the Seventh Circuit.
The Supreme Court has repeatedly noted a meaningful distinction between activities tied to a school’s curriculum and student-led, noncurricular interest groups like the pro-life club in this case.
Kansas previously led multi-state amicus briefs supporting the student and her pro-life club when the case was on appeal to the Seventh Circuit and was subject to a petition for rehearing in that same court.
The brief was joined by Alabama, Alaska, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Louisiana, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, and West Virginia and the Arizona Legislature. In the Supreme Court, the case is E.D. v. Noblesville School District, No. 25-906. A copy of the brief is available here.
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