Supreme Court rejects pro-life student club suspended over Planned Parenthood flyers
June 16, 2026
The U.S. Supreme Court yesterday declined to rule whether a public school violated a pro-life student’s free speech rights by rejecting her club’s anti-Planned Parenthood flyers.
The Christian Post reports that, in an orders list posted Monday morning, the high court denied without comment a petition for a writ of certiorari in the case of E. D., a minor, by her parent and next friend, Lisa Duell, et al. v. Noblesville School District, et al., and allowed a lower court ruling against the student to stand.
The case stems from an incident in 2021, when a student identified as E.D. got permission to start a Students for Life of America chapter at Noblesville High School.
When posting student club flyers, E.D. included photos of people holding signs that read “Defund Planned Parenthood” and “I Am the Pro-Life Generation.”
School officials dismissed the flyers due to the sign photos and temporarily suspended the student organization, citing suspicions that the club was being led by adults instead of students.
E.D. filed a legal complaint against officials, and a district court ruled in favor of the school administrators and the school district officials.
A three-judge panel of the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously upheld the district court ruling last August with Circuit Judge Nancy L. Maldonado concluding that the school district’s “restriction on political content in student flyers is reasonably related to legitimate pedagogical concerns.”
Students for Life of America President Kristan Hawkins denounced that lower court ruling last year, saying, “It’s extraordinary how in the woke environment over the last few years, schools have accommodated kids dressed up like animals and every kind of club imaginable, and yet we are still fighting for the rights of pro-life students to be heard.”
According to the Christian Post, Justice Samuel Alito authored a dissent from the denial, writing that the nation’s highest court needs to address the extent of public school students’ First Amendment rights.
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