One year ago, Attorney General Merrick Garland directed the FBI to investigate concerned parents who were speaking out at local school board meetings as possible domestic terrorists. The organization behind the memo, the National School Boards Association, has since apologized for accusing parents of engaging in “acts of malice, violence, and threats against public school officials.” But for all intents and purposes, Garland’s memo is still in effect.
Garland has refused to retract the directive, defending it as a necessary step to prevent “violence, threats of violence, and other criminal conduct.” But as the Wall Street Journal noted in an editorial on Thursday, Garland’s vague and sweeping definition of potentially violent conduct has been used against parents whose only crime was speaking out against school policies with which they disagreed.
