A federal appeals court ruled Wednesday that Arkansas can enforce its ban on critical race theory in classrooms, ruling 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 U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals vacated a preliminary injunction issued against the ban, one of several changes adopted under an education overhaul that Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed in 2023.
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 institution. The theory is 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.
“With its ruling today, the 8th Circuit continues to ensure that the responsibility of setting curriculum is in the hands of democratically elected officials who, by nature, are responsive to voters,” Griffin said in a statement.
Arkansas is among several Republican-led states that have placed restrictions on how race is taught in the classroom, including prohibitions on critical race theory. President Donald Trump in February ordered federal money for K-12 schools cannot be used on the “indoctrination” of children, including “radical gender ideology and critical race theory.”
“Big win for common sense, education freedom — and parents who just want our schools to teach kids how to think, not what to think,” Sanders, who served as Trump’s press secretary during his first term, posted on X after Wednesday’s ruling.
The judges said they weren't minimizing the students' concerns “whether in this case or in the abstract — about a government that decides to exercise its discretion over the public school curriculum by prioritizing ideological interests over educational ones.”
“But the Constitution does not give courts the power to block government action based on mere policy disagreements,” the court said.
