Merrick Garland renews threat to deny free speech rights of parents

In an appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee yesterday, Attorney General Merrick Garland renewed his threat to deny the free speech rights of parents when he stated that he will not dissolve the task force he formed to investigate threats leveled by parents against school-board members, despite the recent “apology” issued by the National School Boards Association for a letter sent to the White House calling on the DOJ to consider prosecuting protesting parents as “domestic terrorists” under the PATRIOT Act.

The primary reason for Garland’s doubling down on his threat to deny the free speech rights of parents protesting the indoctrination of their children in areas like Critical Race Theory and COVID vaccine mandates is because the NSBA apology was a fake, designed to cover the fact that they worked in tandem with the White House to label parents as “domestic terrorists” in order to give Merrick Garland and the Department of Justice (DOJ) the “never let a crisis go to waste” opportunity to advance Joe Biden’s war against free speech.

Merrick Garland appeared before the House Judiciary Committee last week where he made a lame attempt to distance himself from the National School Boards Association and their use of the words “domestic terrorists” to describe parents exercising their free speech rights (via FOX News):

Attorney General Merrick Garland on Thursday denied claims that the Justice Department (DOJ) would label parents as domestic terrorists following an Oct. 4 memorandum he sent to DOJ employees about intervening in incidents of violence or intimidation targeting state and local school board officials.

“I want to be clear. The Justice Department supports and defends the First Amendment right of parents to complain as vociferously as they wish about the education of their children, about the curriculum taught in the schools. That is not what the memorandum is about at all, nor does it use the words ‘domestic terrorism’ or ‘PATRIOT Act,’” Garland said before the House Judiciary Committee.

Garland added that he “can’t imagine any circumstance in which the Patriot Act would be used in the circumstances of parents complaining about their children,” nor any circumstance in which those instances “would be labeled as domestic terrorism.”

If Garland’s memorandum wasn’t motivated by the PATRIOT Act and domestic terrorism, then why did the White House ensure that those words were included in the NSBA’s September letter? And why did Garland feel the need to create an FBI-led task force?

Despite the Washington doublespeak about how his memorandum didn’t contain the words “domestic terrorism” or the “PATRIOT Act,” Garland used his appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee to confirm his intention to follow-through with his plans to create an FBI-led task force to prosecute the “criminal activity” of parents protesting government indoctrination of their children (via National Review):

During a hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee Wednesday, Attorney General Merrick Garland confirmed that he will not dissolve the task force he formed to investigate threats leveled by parents against school-board members, despite the National School Board Association apologizing for the letter which Garland has said served as the predicate for the task force’s formation.

In defense of his decision to keep the task force, Garland said the NSBA letter wasn’t the only predicate for DOJ action, citing “news reports” detailing threats against school board members that he suggested justified intervention.

During the hearing, Republican Senator Ben Sasse questioned why Garland would not disavow his memo when so many state school board associations have rejected it as well as cut ties with the national group. He accused Garland of launching a campaign against parents to politicize the DOJ.

“Why did the Ohio school board association disassociate from the National School Board Association?,” Sasse asked.

“I don’t know,” Garland replied. “Because this was political hackery,” Sasse shot back. The senator reiterated that while legitimate threats should not be condoned or dismissed, “local law enforcement is more than able to handle one idiot or twelve idiots at local school board meetings.” (emphasis mine)

Accusing anyone who rejects Biden’s open promotion of Critical Race Theory, Marxism, and the teaching of anti-white racism in public schools of harboring “racial or ethnic bigotry and hatred” has become standard operating procedure for the far-left, and Merrick Garland is ready, willing, and able to wield the hammer and sickle of the DOJ to go after parents who oppose teaching these things to their children.

Joe Biden has been at war against against free speech and pretty much the rest of the Bill of Rights from the day he took his oath of office to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States, so Merrick Garland’s willingness to help his boss destroy it by using the Department of Justice to deny parents their free speech rights should come as no surprise.

That is, after all, what living under tyranny looks like.

 

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David Leach is the owner of the Strident Conservative. He holds people of every political stripe accountable for their failure to uphold conservative values, and he promotes those values instead of political parties.

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