{"id":1658314,"date":"2022-09-26T10:20:10","date_gmt":"2022-09-26T14:20:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1658314"},"modified":"2022-09-26T10:41:21","modified_gmt":"2022-09-26T14:41:21","slug":"federal-judge-dismisses-parents-lawsuit-against-attorney-general-for-memo-describing-them-as-threats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/federal-judge-dismisses-parents-lawsuit-against-attorney-general-for-memo-describing-them-as-threats\/","title":{"rendered":"Federal Judge Dismisses Parents\u2019 Lawsuit Against Attorney General for Memo Describing Them as \u2018Threats\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">28<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Ffederal-judge-dismisses-parents-lawsuit-against-attorney-general-for-memo-describing-them-as-threats%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1658314&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>A lawsuit filed by parents against Attorney General Merrick Garland for a memo he wrote, which characterized parents protesting against school district policies as a threat, has been dismissed by a federal judge.<\/p>\n<p>In the\u00a0memo (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/ag\/page\/file\/1438986\/download\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">pdf<\/a>) issued by Garland on Oct. 4, 2021, he stated that there had been a \u201cdisturbing spike in harassment, intimidation, and threats of violence against school administrators, board members, teachers, and staff.\u201d The Department of Justice (DOJ) would use its authority and resources to discourage such threats, identify them, and prosecute people, it said.<\/p>\n<p>The memo was written in response to a letter sent by the National School Boards Association (NSBA) to the DOJ on Sept. 29, 2021, which described\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/probe-of-nsba-domestic-terrorism-letter-ends-in-apology-pledge-to-ensure-this-does-not-happen-again_4481270.html?utm_source=partner&amp;utm_campaign=conservnewsd\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">parental opposition to school policies<\/a>\u00a0like teaching critical race theory or imposing COVID-19 restrictions as being akin to \u201cdomestic terrorism\u201d and warned that the country\u2019s public schools and education leaders are under \u201cimmediate threat.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>On Oct. 19, 2021, Saline Parents, an association of parents in Saline, Michigan\u2014along with six individual parents from either Saline, Michigan, or Loudon County, Virginia\u2014filed a lawsuit against Merrick.<\/p>\n<p>It claimed that the attorney general adopted an unlawful policy to use the resources of federal law enforcement to \u201csilence parents and other private citizens\u201d who object and oppose \u201cpolicies of the \u2018progressive\u2019 Left\u201d that are being implemented in public school districts.<\/p>\n<p>The parents alleged that the attorney general\u2019s policy labels them as \u201cdomestic terrorists\u201d as well as criminalizes their speech. However, District Judge Dabney Friedrich, appointed by former President Donald Trump, dismissed the claims.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe alleged AG Policy is not regulatory, proscriptive, or compulsory in nature because it does not impose any regulations, requirements, or enforcement actions on individuals,\u201d the judge wrote in the Sept. 23 order (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.documentcloud.org\/documents\/22924669-lawsuit-over-doj-memo-on-school-board-threats\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">pdf<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNone of the documents that the plaintiffs allege establish the policy create an imminent threat of future legal actions against anyone, much less the plaintiffs,\u201d she wrote.<\/p>\n<h2>Targeting Parents<\/h2>\n<p>In a House Judiciary Committee hearing in October 2021, Garland denied allegations that his agency would label protesting parents as domestic terrorists.<\/p>\n<p>The Justice Department \u201csupports and defends\u201d the First Amendment rights of parents to complain \u201cas vociferously as they wish\u201d about their children\u2019s education, he said. The attorney general also suggested that Republicans were\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/mkt_breakingnews\/fbi-whistleblower-claims-doj-used-counterterrorism-tools-against-parents-republicans_4108044.html?utm_source=partner&amp;utm_campaign=conservnewsd\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">mischaracterizing<\/a>\u00a0his memorandum.<\/p>\n<p>In a letter to Garland in May 2022, Reps. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and Mike Johnson (R-La.) revealed that they received information from FBI whistleblowers that the agency was investigating parents (<a href=\"https:\/\/republicans-judiciary.house.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/2022-05-11-JDJ-MJ-to-Garland-re-threat-tags_Redacted.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">pdf<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have learned from brave whistleblowers that the FBI has opened investigations with the EDUOFFICIALS threat tag in almost every region of the country and relating to all types of educational settings,\u201d the lawmakers wrote.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe information we have received shows how, as a direct result of your directive, federal law enforcement is using counterterrorism resources to investigate protected First Amendment activity.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This is contradictory to Garland\u2019s testimony that the DOJ or its components were not using counterterrorism statutes or resources to target parents, the letter stated.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A lawsuit filed by parents against Attorney General Merrick Garland for a memo he wrote, which characterized parents protesting against school district policies as a threat, has been dismissed by a federal judge. In the\u00a0memo (pdf)\u00a0issued by Garland on Oct. 4, 2021, he stated that there had been a \u201cdisturbing spike in harassment, intimidation, and [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":186,"featured_media":1894823,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1658314","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_finder_url":"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/federal-judge-dismisses-parents-lawsuit-against-attorney-general-for-memo-describing-them-as-threats_4754662.html","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1658314","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/186"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1658314"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1658314\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1894823"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1658314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1658314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1658314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}