"Jewish, Zionist" Teachers' and Parents' Lawsuit Over Allegedly Anti-Capitalist and Anti-Zionist School Curriculum Can Be Refiled, Ninth Circuit Rules

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Cite

Volokh, E. (2026, September 8). "Jewish, Zionist" Teachers' and Parents' Lawsuit Over Allegedly Anti-Capitalist and Anti-Zionist School Curriculum Can Be Refiled, Ninth Circuit Rules. Reason. https://reason.com/volokh/2026/09/08/jewish-zionist-teachers-and-parents-lawsuit-over-allegedly-anti-capitalist-and-anti-zionist-school-curriculum-can-be-refiled-ninth-circuit-rules/

Dated when The Aporia collected the article, usually within hours of publication. Check the original for its exact date and byline.

Reason · collected 2026-09-08 · by Eugene Volokh

Quick Summary

A group of Jewish parents and teachers from Los Angeles Unified School District sued over an allegedly anti-Zionist and anti-Semitic ethnic studies model curriculum being informally used in two classrooms. The Ninth Circuit ruled that the plaintiffs' original complaint was insufficient, but allowed them to refile their lawsuit with more concrete allegations. The key number mentioned is 100,000, referring to the total number of high school students in the district where the curriculum is allegedly being taught. The article does not contain a direct opinion or first-person account, but rather reports on a court decision and its implications for the plaintiffs' case.
Written locally by qwen2.5:14b on 2026-09-08, using this article's own text rather than the other coverage of the same event (that is the story summary below).

AI analysis runs on qwen2.5:14b, locally

Story summary

A group of 19 Jewish parents and teachers in the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) have been granted permission to refile a lawsuit against the Liberated Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum Consortium, an advocacy group that developed a high school curriculum. The plaintiffs claim that the curriculum, which has not been officially adopted by LAUSD, promotes anti-Zionist and antisemitic ideals and is being informally used in some schools by teachers. They also allege that the consortium, along with the LAUSD public school teachers' union and individual affiliates, have undue influence over district-wide curriculum decisions. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the plaintiffs can refile their lawsuit after it was initially dismissed by a lower court.

Written for “California Education Lawsuit” on 2026-10-23, grounded in this article and the 0 other(s) covering the same event.

Story

📰 California Education Lawsuit
Education · 1 article(s) covering the same event.

Compared with similar articles

This article reads leans right and hedges 26% of its claims. Each row says how that neighbour differs.
Los Angeles Times
⚖️ Leans left further left than this 🔴 13% hedged 5 of 38 📰 publisher trust 95
“The articles cover distinct legal cases and incidents, although they share a topic of antisemitism in educational institutions”
How this article was measured signals, leaning charts, publisher record, byline, topics and claims

Signals How these are calculated →

Claims extracted
19
sentences that state something as happening or true
Uncertain
26%
5 of 19 hedged ("reportedly", "may", "according to")
Leaning
Leans right
of the writing, not the subject · beta estimate
Publisher signals
67/100
Reason's corrections and hedging, across everything collected from it. Not a measure of accuracy.
Outlets on this story
1
Education
Same framing elsewhere
1
articles that frame the event the way this one does
Analyzed 2026-09-08 · how these are computed

How this is being covered How these are calculated →

Article leaning vs. publisher reliability
Source leaning vs. consistency

Publisher

Reason · 899 article(s) · 4 correction(s) detected
Running correction rate · 4 correction(s)

Who wrote this

Eugene Volokh
158 article(s) here · 1 carrying a prediction
🔮 The original TRO—the one actually issued on July 20, 2025—named as plaintiffs eleven individuals and organizations who had never been party to the case; named as defendants two officials who were not actually sued; claimed, without evidence, that three post-secondary institutions had already cancelled DEI initiatives or programming because of the act; further declared, again without evidence, that staff at another school had been told not to discuss certain topics, including "historical interpretations involving systemic racism"; misquoted H.B. 1193 as applying to "race or sex stereotyping," "race or sex scapegoating," "critical race theory," and "institutional bias," despite none of these terms' appearing in the act's text; and referenced purported declarations of four individuals who do not appear in the record at all and may not even exist….
🔮 Critics fear that the Department of Justice's antitrust division will overlook mergers when it is convenient for the administration.
🔮 Body armor may be used more today than Defendants' understanding of its use in 1791.
2026-10-21 · assertive framing · Body Armor Ban Struck Down by N.Y. Federal Court
🔮 Readers might want to know: How often do civilians use guns to help stop shooters who pose ongoing threats to multiple people?
🔮 The reality is that our en banc court is often unable or unwilling to fix things at odds with Supreme Court precedent.
🔮 Mostly law professors | Sometimes contrarian | Often libertarian | Always independent From a press release last month, just posted on Westlaw: N.C. Detective Agency, a Durham-based security company, will pay $65,231 in compensatory damages and back pay, and take other corrective actions to voluntarily resolve a religious discrimination investigation by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the federal agency announced today.
🔮 During a discussion in 2016 concerning whether Sabatini would endorse Knouse's application for an upcoming fellowship at Whitehead, Sabatini expressed concern that Knouse took herself too seriously and asked Knouse whether she ever had "fun," "fuck[ed] around," or had sex.
🔮 Some colorful lawyer wisdom (see, e.g., Dunn v. U.S.(5th Cir. 1962)); I found versions of this in newspapers going back to 1931, though it may have been a familiar phrase even then.
🔮 The dictionary definition of "refuse" cited by Nunes includes this meaning: "to show or express an unwillingness to do or comply with."
🔮 [Under Pennsylvania precedent,] [A] court may prohibit a parent from advocating religious beliefs, which, if acted upon, would constitute a crime.
Also by Eugene Volokh
Open Thread
2026-10-23 · Reason
Open Thread
2026-10-22 · Reason
Nothing else under this byline is closely related to this article, so these are simply their most recent.
All 158 articles by Eugene Volokh →

Topics

Concerned Jewish Parents & Teachers of L.A. Consortium LAUSD Liberated Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum Consortium the Liberated Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum Consortium

Subjects

LAUSD ORG · 5× Consortium ORG · 2× Concerned Jewish Parents & Teachers of L.A. ORG · 1× Jennifer Sung PERSON · 1× Jewish NORP · 1× Kenneth Kiyul Lee PERSON · 1× Liberated Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum Consortium ORG · 1× Patrick Bumatay PERSON · 1× the Liberated Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum Consortium ORG · 1× the Los Angeles Unified School District ORG · 1×

Narrative

But they must at least allege having personally suffered some harm plausibly attributable to the curriculum's spread within the district or the plaintiffs' schools—for example, that the plaintiffs have suffered an independent act of antisemitism causally linked to the curriculum's use within LAUSD or the school….
framing: mixed · carried by 1 article(s) · first seen 2026-09-08
🔮 [Nor do they] offer … facts that would suggest inevitable or likely exposure to the curriculum (or its harmful effects)….

Claims (19 extracted, 5 hedged)

This case arises from an ethnic studies model curriculum for high school classrooms developed and championed by the Liberated Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum Consortium (the Consortium), an advocacy group. asserted
case → arise → Consortium
The proposed curriculum has not been formally proposed to nor adopted by the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD). asserted
curriculum → propose → District
But the plaintiffs—who are Jewish parents with children enrolled in LAUSD and teachers within that district—claim that at least two teachers are informally using the curriculum, which allegedly promotes anti-Zionist and antisemitic ideals. uncertain
which → enrol → ideals
The plaintiffs also allege that the Consortium, along with the LAUSD public school teachers' union and individuals affiliated with these organizations, wield informal influence over district-wide curricular offerings. asserted
Consortium → allege → offerings
The plaintiffs sued, asserting civil rights claims under federal and state law. uncertain
plaintiffs → sue → law
The district court dismissed with prejudice for insufficiency of the pleadings…. asserted
court → dismiss → pleadings
The court agreed that the plaintiffs lacked standing: asserted
plaintiffs → agree → standing
Absent more concrete allegations, the plaintiffs have not shown that they personally suffered the harm of religious or racial discrimination. asserted
they → show → discrimination
The complaint does not allege that the curriculum—despite being used in two classrooms—is being taught at any classroom or even school where the plaintiffs' children attend or plaintiff-teachers work. asserted
teachers → allege → classroom
The alleged harm—the mere knowledge that the curriculum is being taught at two classrooms at LAUSD, which has over 100,000 high school students across dozens of schools—is too remote and speculative to constitute an injury-in-fact. asserted
which → allege → fact
Our circuit's standing precedent does not require the plaintiffs to allege that they or their children were directly exposed to antisemitic elements of the curriculum. asserted
they → require → curriculum
But they must at least allege having personally suffered some harm plausibly attributable to the curriculum's spread within the district or the plaintiffs' schools—for example, that the plaintiffs have suffered an independent act of antisemitism causally linked to the curriculum's use within LAUSD or the school…. asserted
plaintiffs → allege → LAUSD
[Nor do they] offer … facts that would suggest inevitable or likely exposure to the curriculum (or its harmful effects)…. asserted
that → offer → curriculum
But the court concluded that plaintiffs should have been given leave to file an amended Complaint: asserted
plaintiffs → conclude → Complaint
In briefing and during argument, the plaintiffs offered several proposed amendments that could potentially cure the standing deficiencies. uncertain
that → offer → deficiencies
These include, for example, that the challenged curriculum has proliferated in the two-plus years that have passed since the lawsuit was filed, and that the plaintiffs' children have suffered related antisemitic acts at school (such as bullying)…. asserted
children → include → bullying
The court expressly declined to consider the merits of the case, and faulted the district court for considering the merits ("Because the district court concluded that plaintiffs lacked standing, it should not have reached the merits of the plaintiffs' claims"). And the court concluded that, because plaintiffs should be able to file an amended complaint, the district court shouldn't have awarded defendants attorney fees under the California anti-SLAPP statute: uncertain
court → decline → statute
"[O]ur circuit has held that in federal court, a defendant may only prevail on an anti-SLAPP motion once it is clear the complaint cannot be saved by amendment. uncertain
complaint → hold → amendment
You can also see the November 2024 post quoting the district court decision. asserted
You → see → decision
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