Senate Judiciary Committee Republicans warned Attorney General Merrick Garland against using federal law enforcement to “chill” or prosecute First Amendment-protected speech opposing “critical race theory” in classrooms following a DOJ memo about alleged threats and violence at school protests.

The letter, led by ranking member Sen. Chuck Grassley and signed by all 11 GOP committee members, said that “violence and true threats of violence are not protected speech and have no place in the public discourse of a democracy” but that “the FBI should not be involved in quashing and criminalizing discourse that is well beneath violent acts” and that “federal law enforcement muscle should never be used against protesting parents.”