A federal judge dismissed a lawsuit from the Texas American Federation of Teachers (TAFT) that sought to block the Texas Education Agency from investigating educators over social media comments regarding the death of activist Charlie Kirk U.S. District Judge Alan Albright dismissed the union’s lawsuit, ruling that the union lacked standing because a controversial directive letter from the state education commissioner did not constitute official policy. Following the fatal shooting of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, the Texas Education Agency (TEA) investigated over 350 complaints regarding inappropriate social media remarks made by educators.
TAFT argued that state investigations and disci-plinary actions violated members’ free speech rights under the First Amendment.
The lawsuit was brought by the Texas American Federation of Teachers (TAFT) in January following a letter issued by TEA Education Commissioner Mike Morath over his letter, accusing him of stifling teachers’ freedom of speech. The Texas Education Agency (TEA) responded that the investigations were enforcing existing policy.
The judge concluded that the state’s letter merely served as a reminder of existing reporting duties rather than creating new binding obligations, and the union failed to tie specific adverse local employment actions directly to the state’s directive.
Allbright wrote, “ “The Morath Letter simply states that Commissioner Morath would be referring any content that he believed to violate the current Educators’ Code of Ethics to the current Educator Investigations Division. The court does not see any “mandate” in the letter, because the letter does not announce any new requirement or threat.”
Albright also wrote that a court order “repealing the letter would not change plaintiff’s members’ situation” as any alleged injury would be downstream from the agency’s Educators’ Code of Ethics and Educator Investigations Division, not the letter.
The ruling does not prevent teachers from suing over individual investigations into their Kirk-related posts.