Little Rock Students Lose Bid to Keep Critical Race Theory

A federal appeals court ruled Wednesday that Arkansas can enforce its ban on critical race theory in classrooms, saying the First Amendment doesn't give students the right to compel the state to offer its instruction in public schools. A three-judge panel of the 8th US Circuit Court of Appeals vacated a preliminary injunction against the ban, one of several changes adopted under an education overhaul that Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed in 2023, the AP reports. The prohibition is being challenged by two teachers and two students at Little Rock Central High School, site of the 1957 desegregation crisis. A federal judge had granted the injunction to the students but not the teachers.

"Just as ordinary citizens cannot require the government to express a certain viewpoint or maintain a prior message, students cannot oblige the government to maintain a particular curriculum or offer certain materials in that curriculum based on the Free Speech Clause," the judges ruled. Attorneys for the teachers and students said they were disappointed in the ruling. "It gives us pause and concern about a steady erosion of individual rights and protections in this great country," attorney Mike Laux said in a statement. "Nonetheless, major aspects of this lawsuit remain viable, and they will proceed in due course."

Critical race theory is an academic framework dating to the 1970s that centers on the idea that racism is embedded in the nation's institutions. It's not a fixture of K-12 education, and Arkansas' ban does not define what constitutes critical race theory. Republican Attorney General Tim Griffin praised the court's ruling, saying it ensures that "setting curriculum is in the hands of democratically elected officials who, by nature, are responsive to voters." The judges said they weren't minimizing the students' concerns "about a government that decides to exercise its discretion over the public school curriculum by prioritizing ideological interests over educational ones." They added, "But the Constitution does not give courts the power to block government action based on mere policy disagreements."