DoDEA Must Return Books to Shelves, Judge Ruleshttps://www.aclu.org/press-releases/dodea-must-return-books-to-shelves-judge-rules 🔗ACLU Press Release (20 Oct 2025)
ALEXANDRIA, Va. — In a victory for free speech, the Department of Defense (DOD) must stop censoring classroom and library materials pertaining to race and gender in DOD-run schools, a judge ruled today.
On behalf of six military families with students enrolled in Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA) schools, the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Kentucky, and the ACLU of Virginia filed a motion for preliminary injunction in May seeking to declare DoDEA's enforcement of executive orders resulting in classroom censorship unconstitutional.
"This is an important victory for students in DoDEA schools and anyone who values full libraries and vibrant classrooms," said Emerson Sykes, senior staff attorney with the ACLU's Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project. "The censorship taking place in DoDEA schools as a result of these executive orders was astonishing in its scope and scale, and we couldn't be more pleased that the court has vindicated the First Amendment rights of the students this has impacted."
The demand for an injunction was filed on behalf of 12 students and their families, ranging from pre-K to 11th grade, who attend DoDEA schools as children of active duty servicemembers stationed in Virginia, Kentucky, Italy, and Japan. Since January, the plaintiffs' schools have removed books, altered curricula, and canceled events that the Trump administration has accused of promoting "gender ideology" or "divisive equity ideology." Censored items include materials about slavery, Native American history, women's history, LGBTQ identities and history, and preventing sexual harassment and abuse, as well as portions of the Advanced Placement (AP) Psychology curriculum.
