The Seventh Circuit affirmed the denial of a preliminary injunction against Indiana’s ban on K-3 human sexuality instruction, applying public employee speech doctrine to elementary teachers.
Kayla Smiley challenged Indiana House Enrolled Act 1608, which prohibits public schools and teachers from providing instruction on human sexuality to students in prekindergarten through third grade.
Smiley, who was set to teach grades 1–3 in the Indianapolis Public School system, argued that the statute was facially overbroad and unconstitutionally vague under the First and Fourteenth Amendments.
She contended that the law would chill her protected speech, including placing pro-LGBTQ+ stickers on her water bottle and car, providing books touching on gender identity in her classroom library, and correcting students who used pejorative terms related to sexual identity.
The Seventh Circuit held that Smiley failed to show a likelihood of success on the merits because her classroom instruction and related communications constitute official speech that receives no First Amendment protection.
Citing Brown v. Chicago Board of Education, the court noted that primary teachers in public schools have limited speech rights and that their in-classroom instruction does not enjoy First Amendment protection, whether delivered as a formal lesson or spontaneous lecture.
The court further held that the statute was not unconstitutionally vague because both instruction and human sexuality possess an ascertainable core of meaning, with edge cases to be resolved through as-applied challenges rather than facial invalidation.