Federal Appeals Court Says That Race, Gender Instruction Are Not Censored in Oklahoma Classrooms

DENVER — In a split opinion, the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals yesterday held that a classroom censorship law that went into effect in Oklahoma in 2021 does not censor concepts related to race and gender in the classroom. The law, one of a rash of state-level classroom censorship laws that have pervaded the country since 2021, prohibited teachers from “making part of a course” eight concepts related to race and gender. The district court had blocked enforcement of several provisions of the law including two of the most confusingly worded concepts in 2024, while leaving the rest of the law in place. While yesterday’s ruling vacates that preliminary injunction, two judges on the three-judge panel interpreted the law so narrowly that it does not prohibit schools from presenting robust instruction on issues related to identity and discrimination.

In a dissent, Judge Nancy Moritz pointed out that the majority was “attempt[ing] to rescue an obviously vague statute” and that she would have blocked enforcement of the law “in full.”

“The majority’s narrow reading of the law means that H.B. 1775 is no longer a barrier to inclusive teaching and honest discussions about race and gender,” said Emerson Sykes, senior staff attorney with the ACLU’s Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project. “This decision will provide much-needed relief to students and educators across the state who can once again teach, learn, and discuss the world around them without fear of punishment under this law. We hope that this ruling constrains any Oklahoma officials tempted to use this law to censor educators.”

“Oklahoma students deserve a nuanced education of race, gender, and American history,” said Megan Lambert, legal director with the ACLU of Oklahoma. “Such nuanced instruction may now return to Oklahoma classrooms. This ruling narrowed Oklahoma’s censorship law out of existence by interpreting it to only prohibit educators from affirmatively encouraging discrimination. We stand with Oklahoma educators and will continue to ensure Oklahoma classrooms are free from state censorship.”

The suit was originally filed in 2021 by the ACLU, the ACLU of Oklahoma, Lawyers Committee, and McDermott, Will & Schulte LLP filed suit against HB 1775 on behalf of a broad group of public school teachers and students.

“As Judge Moritz correctly relays in her dissent, 'teaching is far broader in scope than dispensing a sterile set of correct-or-incorrect facts to students—teaching involves responding to questions, leading open-ended discussions, and exploring real-world parallels to, and the legacies of, historical events,' said Michael Pillera, Director of the Educational Opportunities Project at the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. “The majority decision, while grossly misunderstanding the role of teachers and deeply underappreciating the intellectual journey students take in classrooms throughout Oklahoma, stymies a vague law's most harmful reach. The majority states that teachers only violate the law if they present an 'unqualified racist or sexist assertion' as fact, something the broad majority of teachers are clearly not doing.”