New Hampshire’s limits on teaching on race and gender are unconstitutional, judge says

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — A federal judge has struck down New Hampshire’s nearly 3-year-old law limiting what teachers can say about race, gender, sexual orientation, disability and other topics in public schools as unconstitutionally vague. The ruling could revive the topic as an election year campaign issue.

Republicans pitched the 2021 law as an anti-discrimination measure after the Trump administration sought to ban discussion of “divisive concepts.” It prohibits teaching public school children that they’re inferior, racist, sexist or oppressive by virtue of their race, gender or other characteristics.

Teachers found to have violated the law could face discipline including the possible loss of their licenses, and could also face lawsuits.

Educators and administrators who sued the state said they were confused about what they could legally teach. They said the law violates their freedom of speech, and they feared for their jobs.

U.S. District Judge Paul Barbadoro ruled Tuesday that the law’s phrasing about banned concepts speaks only obliquely about the targeted speech, and fails “to provide teachers with much-needed clarity” about how they might apply it, both in the classroom and in extra-curricular activities where students might initiate conversations.

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