Why a lawsuit against Ryan Walters over student pronouns is headed back to state court
A lawsuit filed against state schools Superintendent Ryan Walters and the Oklahoma State Board of Education on behalf of a Moore Public Schools student who wanted to change their pronouns in school records is moving back to state court.
Federal court records indicate that on March 12, U.S. District Judge David Russell ordered the case, known as Doe v. Walters, to return to Cleveland County District Court. That’s where the lawsuit originally was filed on Dec. 21 by the Oklahoma Equality Law Center and the Oklahoma Appleseed Center for Law and Justice, which referred to the student in the lawsuit as “J. Doe.”
Attorneys for Walters and the state board had the case moved from state to federal court on Jan. 10, saying it involved issues better adjudicated at the federal-court level. But last month, the student’s attorneys filed an amended version of the lawsuit in U.S. District Court in the Western District of Oklahoma that they said dismissed “all claims brought under federal law.”
The student’s attorneys also asked Russell, to whom the case had been assigned, to move the case back to state court. A response dated March 8 and signed by Bryan Cleveland — then the general counsel for the Oklahoma State Department of Education, who since has resigned that position — agreed with that position. In the filing, Cleveland said the updated version of the lawsuit “leaves only claims relating to the interpretation and application of state law.”
State court records show no filings in the case since Jan. 10 and no indication of any scheduled hearings in the case in Cleveland County court.
What actions did Walters, state Board of Education take leading up to the lawsuit?
On Sept. 28, the state board approved a temporary rule prohibiting school districts and local schools from “altering sex or gender designations in past student records" without the board's authorization.
During its meeting on Oct. 27, the board voted 5-0 to reject requests from the Moore and Cushing school districts to authorize changing the gender or sex designation of students currently in those districts’ student information systems. Both districts had received court orders — from judges in Cleveland and Payne counties, respectively — to make those changes. However, Walters dismissed the requests out of hand. Bryan Cleveland, during a Board of Education meeting, called the court orders “illegal.”
“We now have a second issue of a left-wing, activist judge issuing a ruling to a district directly using almost identical language,” Walters said at the time. “I believe we’ve got to continue to stand in the way of these radical leftist Biden judges that are sitting here trying to dictate this to our schools." In Oklahoma, state court judges are appointed by the governor, not the U.S. president.
On Dec. 21, just hours after being sued over the issue, the state board deferred voting on making the rule change permanent, but the board did so at its next regular meeting, on Jan. 25. The case already had been transferred to federal court by that time.
In the lawsuit, Doe asked the court to declare the state board’s rule “invalid as beyond the scope of the grant of rulemaking authority by the Legislature to the Board.” The suit also asks for both a temporary and permanent injunction to prevent Walters and the board from enforcing the rule, as well as for attorney fees and costs and “any other relief as the Court deems just and proper."
During the case’s brief time in federal court, the student won one dispute. Attorneys for the student had asked to proceed with the lawsuit using a pseudonym for privacy reasons, but said they were willing to reveal the student’s identity to the defendants. Walters and the board opposed that motion, likening transgender status to “routine personal information,” according to an order from Russell.
Russell disagreed, noting “the reality that transgender status is a highly sensitive and private matter for many individuals, including apparently, J. Doe.” His order on Feb. 12 approved the student’s request for anonymity.
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Student pronoun lawsuit against Ryan Walters back in Oklahoma court
