A federal judge dismissed with prejudice a lawsuit against AB 715, California’s law aimed at combating antisemitism in K-12 schools, on Tuesday, barring the plaintiffs from bringing the same claims again.
The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee filed the lawsuit in November on behalf of parents, teachers and students in California, as well as Los Angeles Educators for Palestine, alleging that the law violates the First Amendment.
AB 715, which took effect in January, creates an antisemitism prevention coordinator within the state’s Office of Civil Rights and establishes requirements for addressing discrimination in schools.
Noël Wise, a judge in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, denied the plaintiffs’ request for a preliminary injunction that would have blocked enforcement of the law while the case proceeded. In a Dec. 31 ruling, Wise said the plaintiffs “have failed to demonstrate that their classroom speech is protected by the First Amendment” and therefore “failed to allege an adequate First Amendment violation.”
Wise also stated that the plaintiffs made “inconsistent” arguments by claiming the law was vague in its definition of antisemitism while objecting to the inclusion of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance working definition.
In Tuesday’s ruling dismissing the case, which JNS reviewed, Wise wrote that the plaintiffs’ opposition to the motion to dismiss repeated “several arguments that the court has already considered and dispatched” and did not provide a compelling reason for the court to revisit its previous findings.
She stated that the only new argument provided was that the law violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment because it establishes an antisemitism prevention coordinator under an office of civil rights while leaving coordinators for other protected classes to future legislation. Wise rejected that argument, writing that the law addresses antisemitism in a neutral manner and that the state’s civil rights office established under the law is intended to address all forms of discrimination, not only antisemitism.
Wise also cited SB 48, a companion bill to AB 715, a companion measure signed into law that creates “additional coordinators tasked with rooting out different types of discrimination, including discrimination on the basis of race or religion,” thus undermining the argument.
“The court’s decision to dismiss the plaintiffs’ claims with prejudice firmly establishes once again that the First Amendment does not grant teachers or students the right to dictate school curriculum—a responsibility that belongs solely to the state,” Carly Gammill, director of legal policy at StandWithUs, told JNS.
“Amid an unprecedented rise in antisemitism, the ruling rightly validates the state’s authority to direct resources toward protecting the Jewish community without it being considered discriminatory against other groups,” Gammill said. “This final dismissal now allows California to fully focus on implementing essential safety measures for Jewish students.”
David Bocarsly, CEO of Jewish California, stated that “this ruling affirms what we’ve said from the start: AB 715 is a critical and constitutionally sound tool to address antisemitism in schools, alongside protections the legislature has extended to other forms of discrimination through companion legislation.”
“This ruling, and the fact that the case has been dismissed with prejudice, affirms that AB 715 is a strong, legitimate approach to protecting Jewish students, and all students, against harassment and discrimination,” the Jewish Community Relations Council Bay Area told JNS.
“The court has decisively rejected claims that AB 715 violates First Amendment rights or that it is in any way exclusionary,” the group said. “We are grateful to Attorney General Rob Bonta and his office for their strong defense of the bill and commitment to protecting California students from antisemitism and discrimination. This clears the way for the law to move forward as intended.”
Teresa Drenick, Northern California regional director of the American Jewish Committee, told JNS that Wise “correctly rejected the view that the First Amendment affords teachers in public schools the right to teach any way that they wish.”
“The law does not now, nor has it ever, recognized such a First Amendment right for teachers,” she said. “The court has twice rejected a legal challenge to AB 715. In both cases, the judge wrote extensive and detailed reasoning for her rulings, and it’s now time for the law to be fully implemented with the governor’s office appointing the requisite staff to the newly formed office of civil rights and the requisite coordinators to address antisemitism and other forms of bias.”
