Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys filed their opening brief in Theis v. InterMountain Education Service District Board of Directors with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit. ADF attorneys represent a licensed clinical social worker who was ordered by the InterMountain Education Service District to remove the children’s books “He Is He,” “She Is She,” and “Johnny the Walrus” from behind his office desk.
InterMountain and the schools it serves allow employees to decorate their offices with all kinds of personal items, including paintings, photos, quotes, books, and even posters or statements that convey political messages, such as promoting unions, Black Lives Matter, and the LGBTQ+ movement. But after one employee complained that Rod Theis’ book display was “transphobic,” InterMountain ordered him to remove the books because they promoted a “binary view of gender.” A lower court ruled that Theis must remove the books from his desk when students are in his office, prompting the appeal to the 9th Circuit.
“This case isn’t about books; it’s about public officials telling an employee that he isn’t allowed to express a view that differs from their own,” said ADF Senior Counsel Tyson Langhofer, director of the ADF Center for Academic Freedom. “Our legal system is built on the truth that the government can’t silence a speaker just because it disapproves of what he says. In the same way, InterMountain can’t censor Rod’s freedom of expression by forcing him to remove children’s book covers used as decoration in his office. We are urging the court to protect his First Amendment freedom to express his views just as other teachers at the school are allowed to do.”
“I want every student I work with to experience kindness, dignity, and respect during their time with me,” Theis said. “This is an important aspect of what I do in the educational environment. Government officials are wrong to tell me I can’t express my sincere religious beliefs about male and female. Every American, including my coworkers, has the same freedom to express their own views on the subject.”
Theis was inspired by the message of hope for children conveyed in the books, which explain how children should embrace and love how God made them to be, Theis decided to place the books behind his office desk, displaying only their covers as decoration.
InterMountain labeled the display as “a hostile expression of animus toward another person relating to their actual or perceived gender identity” and ordered Theis to remove them. InterMountain then warned Theis that “further conduct of this nature” would result in discipline, including termination of his employment, simply because InterMountain officials disagreed with the books’ content.
“InterMountain Education Service District has prohibited both the display of books [Theis] chooses to decorate his office and the expression of any views that promote a binary view of sex while actively promoting opposing views. Thus, it has infringed his rights to free speech, free exercise of religion, and due process,” ADF’s brief on behalf of Theis explains.
InterMountain has created and implemented a speech code that labels individuals of faith who hold to a biological view of gender as “transphobic” and hostile, and it calls for their termination. As ADF attorneys explain, InterMountain’s censorship of Theis’ message violates the First and Fourteenth Amendments.
