Conservatives try (and fail) to sue over Garland's school memo

[LetMyPeopleVote]

These lawsuits are so stupid that they are funny

Link to tweet

https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/maddowblog/conservatives-try-fail-sue-garlands-school-memo-rcna49791?cid=sm_npd_ms_tw_ma

Attorney General Merrick Garland was confronted last year with real-world evidence of educators being targeted as part of an intimidation campaign. It led him to write an unremarkable memo explaining the importance of preventing threats and potential violence.

Republican hysteria soon followed. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy declared in April, “We’re going to investigate the attorney general. Why did he go after parents and call them ‘terrorists’ simply because they wanted to go to a school board meeting?”

The House GOP leader was brazenly lying. Garland did not “go after parents,” and he didn’t label them “terrorists.” McCarthy just made this up, though he was hardly alone: Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, also accused Garland of allowing the Justice Department “to spy on parents,” which never happened......

The trouble, of course, is that regular ol’ GOP voters don’t know they’ve been lied to, so they sometimes end up filing pointless lawsuits. CNN reported over the weekend:

A federal judge threw out a lawsuit on Friday from parents that accused Attorney General Merrick Garland of stifling their free speech, saying the group misunderstood a memo addressing increased harassment against schools. In 2021, Garland released a memo addressing the “disturbing spike in harassment, intimidation, and threats of violence” levied at schools. ... In an attempt to stop the Justice Department from enforcing the memo, a group of parents from Virginia and Washington sued Garland, claiming the memo tried to silence parents who were lawfully protesting the “harmful, immoral, and racist policies of the ‘progressive’ Left” at their local schools.

U.S. District Court Judge Dabney Friedrich — who happens to be a Trump appointee — patiently explained while throwing out the case that Garland’s memo barely says anything and there is no meaningful policy to block.

[underpants]

1. Here's the memo. No mention of "parent/s" as the judge said.

https://www.justice.gov/ag/page/file/1438986/download