Overview
- America First Legal’s July 2025 disclosure reveals the White House consulted on finding a “federal hook” to treat school board parent protests as domestic terrorism
- An Oct. 1, 2021 email from Deputy AG aide Kevin Chambers confirms White House inquiries into DOJ assistance after the National School Boards Association’s letter
- Career lawyers in the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division warned that most parent speech was protected by the First Amendment and lacked any federal statutory basis
- Within three days of the NSBA letter, DOJ officials drafted the memo that Attorney General Merrick Garland issued on Oct. 4, 2021, directing the FBI to respond to alleged threats at school board meetings
- America First Legal and allied conservative groups argue the emails prove a politically motivated effort to suppress parental dissent and sway elections