1. United States
2. Mich.
3. Letter

The Department of Justice's investigations into school districts across the country are cruel witch hunts that waste federal resources. I need you to publicly oppose these investigations and defend our schools' right to provide inclusive, safe environments for all students. Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon claims legal authority from Mahmoud v. Taylor and Mirabelli v. Bonta, but neither case supports these sweeping investigations. Mahmoud only addressed opt-outs from specific storybooks and explicitly did not ban LGBTQ+ content from schools. Mirabelli dealt with parental notification policies, not bathroom access or sports participation. The DOJ is distorting narrow Supreme Court rulings to justify discrimination against transgender students. These investigations threaten to strip federal funding from schools that treat transgender students with dignity. School districts in Virginia, Denver, Chicago, and New York City have already refused similar demands. A federal judge in Oregon blocked enforcement on behalf of 16 states. Our state should not capitulate to these threats. The Civil Rights Division once investigated actual discrimination. Now it targets schools for being inclusive. Stand with students and educators by rejecting these investigations and protecting our schools from federal overreach.