The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit this week dismissed a case against a Portland, Oregon, public school district where students were encouraged to attend an anti-gun protest, saying that the issue was about peer pressure rather than compelled speech.
The lawsuit was filed in 2019 by two couples on behalf of their three children attending schools at Portland Public Schools (PPS). The parents, who described themselves as a pro-gun political minority, claimed that their First Amendment rights were violated when the district took part in a nationwide school “walkout” protest in favor of stricter government control on guns.
