McConnell Letter to AG Garland on DOJ Targeting Concerned Parents

WASHINGTON D.C. — U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) wrote a letter today to Attorney General Merrick Garland concerning his announcement that the Department of Justice will scrutinize and target parents who express concern about their children’s public educations.

The full letter is available here.

Excerpts from the letter are below:

“Parents absolutely should be telling their local schools what to teach. This is the very basis of representative government. They do this both in elections and—as protected by the First Amendment of the Constitution—while petitioning their government for redress of grievance. Telling elected officials they’re wrong is democracy, not intimidation.”

“While some schoolboard meetings have involved altercations with the police, they seem to have been isolated and dealt with effectively by local law enforcement. Violence, threats of violence, and other criminal behavior are always wrong. On the other hand, in your very backyard of Virginia, there have been shocking efforts by public officials to organize for the intimidation and harassment of parents who have the temerity to want a better education for their children… It’s exactly this kind of intimidation of private citizens by government officials that our federal civil rights laws were designed to prevent. ”

“Why, in your view, are state and local law enforcement not adequately equipped to deal with any violence or threats that may arise from schoolboard protests?”

The full letter is available here.

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Related Issues: Law Enforcement, First Amendment, Education

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