Overview
- Hearing in San Jose concluded without a ruling on a preliminary injunction sought to halt AB 715 before its Jan. 1 start date.
- AB 715 creates a K-12 Office of Civil Rights and an Antisemitism Prevention Coordinator, bans biased instruction and inaccurate materials, and permits anonymous complaints about classroom content.
- Plaintiffs—four teachers, LA Educators for Justice in Palestine, and three students—argue the law is vague and overbroad, chills discussion of Israel-Palestine, and violates free-speech and due-process rights.
- The state, represented by Attorney General Rob Bonta’s office, counters that teachers have no classroom speech rights under government-speech doctrine, the law aligns with existing anti-discrimination rules, and an injunction is premature.
- Judge Noël Wise pressed both sides on teachers’ speech rights and noted AB 715 references the federal antisemitism strategy only as guidance, as debate continued over links to the IHRA definition and how schools should handle related instruction.