Coalition Sues to Stop Mississippi’s New Anti-Diversity Law, Calling It an ‘Attack on Truth’

Mississippi’s new anti-diversity, equity and inclusion law that Gov. Tate Reeves signed into law April 14 violates the First and 14th Amendments, plaintiffs argue in a federal lawsuit against the governing boards of Mississippi’s public schools and institutions. 

Mississippi public schools, state-accredited nonpublic schools and state-supported institutions of higher learning could not create, teach or promote DEI programs under the law, which the State is set to start enforcing on July 1. The legislation, House Bill 1193, would prohibit requiring diversity statements or training in hiring, admission and employment processes at educational institutions.

“HB 1193 is the latest in the attack on truth and free expression across our country,” said Amir Badat, a civil rights and racial justice attorney based in Mississippi. “Nowhere is it more important to confront our history and our present-day realities than in Mississippi. When our teachers are afraid to teach, and when our students are banned from learning, we cannot progress as a state, a country, or a society. This lawsuit aims to protect free expression, open exchange of ideas, and truth-telling in our educational institutions.”

The complaint says the Mississippi Legislature is censoring “certain disfavored topics and ideas” and banning schools from teaching about “slavery, the Civil War, discrimination in the past and present, the civil rights movement, the women’s suffrage and women’s rights movements, the  LGBTQ rights movement, and many other aspects of American life and life throughout the world.”

The ACLU of Mississippi, Mississippi Center for Justice, Badat Legal and Quinn, Connor, Weaver, Davies & Rouco LLP, filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi on Monday, June 9.

The bill’s sponsor, Rep. Joey Hood, a white Republican from Ackerman, defended the legislation against accusations that it infringed on free speech.

“We’re not going to restrict anyone’s freedom of speech because that’s guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States of America,” Hood said during the legislative session on Feb. 5. “There’s also an exception with this bill with regard to any violations of free speech. That’s not what it’s about. What it’s about is these institutions that are requiring these kinds of divisive concepts as part of an admissions process or being part of that school. Basically, we’re outlining what the divisive concepts are. We’re not going to mistreat anybody on the basis of race, sex, color, gender—any of those things that I outlined.”

The law says that if a student, employee or contractor believes a school has violated it, they could submit a formal complaint within 30 days of the alleged violation to the governing board overseeing the school; that would be either the local school board, the governing board of the charter school, the Mississippi Board of Education, the community college’s board of trustees or the Institutions of Higher Learning Board of Trustees. The person issuing a complaint must be 18 or older, but a parent or guardian could submit a complaint for a minor.

The legislation does not define the complaint process. Instead, it says the boards overseeing public schools, colleges and universities must create the complaint process, investigation procedures and other policies to address violations under the new law. Schools must submit an annual report to their governing boards that summarizes all complaints made during that year. The governing boards must prepare a report that compiles all complaints and make recommendations to the Legislature for proposed changes to the law. 

“The potential consequences for schools, administrators, teachers, and students are exacerbated by the absence of an explicit scienter requirement in the statute,” the lawsuit says. A scienter, in legal terms, means the intent or knowledge of wrongdoing.

“There is no direction or guidance for administrators, teachers, and students of whether the law is violated, and whether the schools must ‘cure all actions relating to the violation’ if the teacher or student did not realize that their words allegedly violated the act,” the lawsuit continues.

The plaintiffs are the Mississippi Association of Educators; Barbara Phillips, an adjunct law professor at the University of Mississippi; James Thomas, an associate sociology professor at UM; Dawn Zimmerer, an administrative librarian for McLendon Library at Hinds Community College; L.E. Jibol, a parent of two public school students in the Jackson Public Schools District; Madisyn Donley, a third-year law student at UM School of Law; Alexis Cobbs, a third-year law student at UM School of Law; Karen Aderer, a lecturer of social work at the University of Southern Mississippi; United Campus Workers Southeast Local 3821; Women in Science and Engineering; and Fostering LGBTQ+ Advocacy, Resources, and Environments.

The defendants are the groups that would have to enforce the anti-“DEI” law in schools: the Board of Trustees of State Institutions of Higher Learning, the Mississippi Community College Board, the Mississippi State Board of Education and the Mississippi Charter School Authorizer Board.