‘Trying to Silence Parents’ Flops Again

“Falsehood flies, and truth comes limping after it.” – Jonathon Swift

Around this time last year, Glenn Youngkin seized upon a Department of Justice memo on the rise of harassment and threat of violence against school board members. Youngkin flatly lied ^[1] about the memo, claiming the DOJ was “trying to silence parents standing up for their kids.” Despite a thorough debunking from none other than Attorney General Merrick Garland himself ^[2], Youngkin rode the lie to victory in November’s gubernatorial election.

A few of Youngkin’s constituents tried to push his lie on a federal judge appointed by former President Trump. It did not go well (Law and Crime ^[3]).

The memo quickly sparked outrage from conservative media and lawmakers on Capitol Hill ^[4] — and even a federal lawsuit from parents claiming it was a blueprint to “silence” them.

On Friday, a federal judge appointed by Donald Trump jettisoned the lawsuit, finding that the parents and the groups representing them misread the less than 300-word memo.

“The alleged AG Policy is not regulatory, proscriptive, or compulsory in nature because it does not impose any regulations, requirements, or enforcement actions on individuals,” U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich noted ^[5] in a 10-page ruling. “None of the documents that the plaintiffs allege establish the policy create an imminent threat of future legal actions against anyone, much less the plaintiffs.”

Dated Oct. 4, 2021, the memo did not mention “parents,” let alone target them for retribution. It reported a spike of threats and harassment against schools. At the time, schools across the United States faced protests over COVID-19 policies and policies regarding transgender students, but the memo itself did not cite this context.

In fact, the memo expressly supported the First Amendment rights of parents or anyone else to speak their mind about school policies.

Youngkin clearly hoped Virginia voters would be more trusting of him – and thus, less likely to actually read the memo – than Judge Friedrich was. Sadly, he was right.