New York City, NY — Three parent leaders who successfully challenged unconstitutional speech restrictions by Brooklyn school board officials have scored a win for free speech.

Plaintiffs Deborah Alexander, Maud Maron, and Noah Harlan, represented by the Institute for Free Speech, reached a settlement with the individual defendants who excluded them from public meetings and blocked them on social media because of their political viewpoints.

The settlement with former Community Education Council (CEC) 14 President Tajh Sutton and First Vice President Marissa Manzanares follows a federal court’s preliminary injunction ruling in September 2024 that found the parents had demonstrated a clear likelihood of success in proving CEC 14’s policies to be unconstitutional viewpoint discrimination. The court’s 2024 ruling also ordered Maron’s immediate reinstatement to CEC 2, from which she had been removed for criticizing officials.

Under the settlement terms, Sutton and Manzanares will be dismissed from the lawsuit, after promising not to discriminate against the Plaintiffs’ viewpoints should they hold public office again, and after paying each Plaintiff $17.91 in nominal damages (an amount symbolic of the First Amendment’s ratification in 1791). The broader constitutional challenge against the New York City Department of Education’s Regulation D-210 speech code continues. That regulation governs the speech of CEC and Citywide Council members and has been used to investigate and threaten the removal of elected parent leaders for expressing views officials find objectionable. Plaintiffs will also continue seeking a permanent injunction against CEC 14’s speech code.

“Sutton and Manzanares remain entitled to express their views, but they will have to compete in the marketplace of ideas with their critics,” said Institute for Free Speech Vice President for Litigation Alan Gura. “Parents who are elected to represent their communities cannot be silenced simply because other officials disagree with their political views or find their speech offensive, or because they exercise their right to criticize public officials.”

The lawsuit challenges CEC 14’s practice of excluding critics from public meetings, blocking them on social media, and imposing vague “community guidelines” that prohibit “oppressive beliefs,” “bad faith arguments,” and “misinformation.” The court’s preliminary injunction ruling found that these restrictions likely violate the First Amendment by discriminating against speakers based on viewpoint.

“This settlement confirms that no school official is above the Constitution,” said Deborah Alexander, one of the plaintiffs in the suit and an elected member of New York City’s Citywide Council on High Schools. “Parents have the right to participate in public meetings and criticize their elected representatives without fear of retaliation.”

Plaintiff Maud Maron, an elected member of CEC 2, noted that this settlement doesn’t mean the end of the battle for free speech, “While this is a positive step, and we’re pleased with this resolution, the DOE’s Regulation D-210 continues to chill the speech of parent leaders across the city through investigations and threats of removal from office.”

Plaintiff Noah Harlan, an elected member and President of CEC 1, added: “This case has always been about more than just CEC 14. It’s about ensuring that all parents can exercise their constitutional rights without being subjected to viewpoint discrimination by officials who seek to silence opposing ideas and basic criticism.”

To read the stipulation of dismissal in the case, Alexander, et al. v. Sutton, et al., click here. To read our original press release about the filing of the case, click here. To review all of the filings and background materials on the case, including photographs of the plaintiffs for media use, please see the full case page here.

About the Institute for Free Speech

The Institute for Free Speech promotes and defends the political speech rights to freely speak, assemble, publish, and petition the government guaranteed by the First Amendment.