8th Circuit Reinstates Arkansas’s Ban on Critical Race Theory Instruction

The ruling allows the state to enforce the LEARNS Act ban during the ongoing lawsuit brought by Little Rock Central High educators and students.

Overview

A three-judge panel of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals vacated U.S. District Judge Lee P. Rudofsky’s May 2024 injunction that had blocked enforcement of the state’s CRT prohibition.
The judges held that the Free Speech Clause does not grant students the right to compel schools to teach material the government chooses to exclude.
The LEARNS Act, enacted in 2023, bars instruction deemed “indoctrination” of Critical Race Theory without defining what constitutes that framework.
The lawsuit by two students and two teachers at Little Rock Central High School, site of the 1957 desegregation crisis, will now continue in district court.
Republican Attorney General Tim Griffin and Governor Sanders hailed the decision as preserving elected officials’ authority over school curricula; civil liberties groups warned it undermines students’ First Amendment protections.