Identity of Speakers
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n/a
Student
Other
Resources
Additional Information
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Incident Nature:
Course Content
Lawsuit
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Incident Political Orientation:
Not Clear -
Incident Responses:
Litigation
State Campus Free Speech Act
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Incident Status:
In litigation Federal District Court
Settled
- Did not involve Speech Codes
Summary
In 2021, a coalition of civil rights and activist groups including the Black Emergency Response Team, NAACP-Oklahoma, the American Indian Movement Indian Territory, the OU Chapter of the American Association of University Professors, students, and individual educators filed suit against Oklahoma’s HB 1775. The plaintiffs argued that the law, which restricted the teaching of concepts related to race and gender, was vague and overly broad. They said it chilled the speech of students and teachers, denied students of color and other marginalized groups meaningful participation, and violated the First and Fourteenth Amendments.
The case, known as Black Emergency Response Team v. O’Connor, moved forward in federal court. Plaintiffs claimed that HB 1775’s classroom censorship provisions prevented instruction on systemic racism and implicit bias, without clear guidance to educators. In June 2024, a federal court issued a partial injunction halting enforcement of key provisions, finding the law vague and likely unconstitutional as applied to K-12 education.
In June 2025, the Oklahoma Supreme Court clarified that HB 1775 does not apply to higher education classrooms, limiting its reach to K-12 schools. On July 23, 2025, the plaintiffs voluntarily dismissed their First Amendment claims against the University of Oklahoma, and the case continued with a focus on K-12 education. The partial federal injunction remains in place, and cross-appeals are pending in the Tenth Circuit as the lawsuit proceeds
