Kansas attorney general enters Indiana fight on student’s right to post political fliers at school
Attorney General Kris Kobach, a Republican, is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene in a lawsuit filed against an Indiana school district that he's convinced violated a student's constitutional rights by forbidding certain content in anti-abortion fliers to be posted at school. In this Jan. 28, 2026, image, Kobach speaks at the March for Life rally in Topeka. (Photo by Anna Kaminski/Kansas Reflector)
TOPEKA — Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach encouraged the U.S. Supreme Court to review lower court decisions finding Indiana high school administrators didn’t violate the constitutional rights of a student who sought to post fliers at school that contained anti-abortion images and political slogans.
Kobach, who joined attorneys general from 13 states on an amicus brief, said the Supreme Court should reverse decisions from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit and the U.S. District Court in Indiana. In a lawsuit filed on behalf of the student and her mother, both courts ruled against the plaintiffs by holding the high school’s restriction on political content in student club fliers was part of a reasonable, viewpoint-neutral policy.
“As Charlie Kirk recognized, respectful and non-disruptive debate and discussion in school is the American way,” Kobach said. “It is unacceptable and unconstitutional for a public high school to prevent a pro-life student group from peacefully advertising its meetings with flyers that convey the group’s values.”
Kirk, who led the conservative student organization Turning Point USA, was shot to death in September at Utah Valley University. In February, the Kansas Legislature approved a resolution calling for observation of a day in October as “Charlie Kirk Free Speech Day.”
The Kansas attorney general’s statement on the Indiana case coincided with the Kansas Senate’s approval of a measure prohibiting Kansas public school students from leaving school during classroom hours without a parent’s permission to take part in a rally. The Senate voted to sanction school districts, potentially in excess of $100,000 per day, for facilitating a student walkout.
Sen. Michael Murphy, R-Sylvia, said the prohibition, if enacted, wouldn’t undermine Kansans’ constitutional right of speech or assembly in the First Amendment.
In the Indiana case of E.D. v. Noblesville School District, the student’s parent, Lisa Duell, sued the Indiana school district and school administrators for alleged violation of the constitutional right to free speech. The female student — referred to in court documents as “E.D.” — had formed Noblesville Students for Life Club, which was officially recognized by the high school.
The student sought permission to post fliers that called for defunding Planned Parenthood, but school administrators instructed her to revise the fliers prior to posting them in the school building.
The federal district court and appellate court concluded the student’s rights weren’t violated because the district applied its content-neutral rule on what could be posted on school walls.
In the amicus brief filed March 4, Kobach said the Supreme Court previously made important distinctions between activities tied to a school’s curriculum and activities of a student-led, non-curricular group such as a club devoted to abortion rights.
The brief was was joined by attorneys general in Alabama, Alaska, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Louisiana, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota and West Virginia.