Gay-Straight Alliance Case Not Dismissed

The Okeechobee County school board sought to have the suit by the Gay-Straight Alliance dismissed. They did so by using a rather bizarre interpretation of the Civil Right Act of 1871.

Every person who under color of any statute, ordinance, regulation, custom, or usage, of any State or Territory or the District of Columbia, subjects, or causes to be subjected, any citizen of the United States or other person within the jurisdiction thereof to the deprivation of any rights, privileges, or immunities secured by the Constitution and laws, shall be liable to the party injured in an action at law, Suit in equity, or other proper proceeding for redress, except that in any action brought against a judicial officer for an act or omission taken in such officer's judicial capacity, injunctive relief shall not be granted unless a declaratory decree was violated or declaratory relief was unavailable. For the purposes of this section, any Act of Congress applicable exclusively to the District of Columbia shall be considered to be a statute of the District of Columbia.

Attorney David Gibbs argued that the Gay-Straight Alliance is not a person. Therefore the suit should be thrown out. Judge K. Michael Moore quickly knocked that nonsense aside.

...is arguably exactly the type of plaintiffthat the drafters of the (Civil Rights Act) of 1971 had in mind. To hold that it (and other unincorporated associations) do not have a standing to bring Section 1983 claims run counter to legislative history of the statute and would be contrary to public policy.

Judge Moore cites the Lippoldt court ruling and the NAACP being able to bring civil cases to court. Surely, no one argues that the NAACP is a single person. THE GSA have shown that they "suffered an injury." That being disallowed from forming a school club.

Here, Plaintiffs have adequately pled Section 1983 claims against the SBOC. The GSA was founded out of concerns for student safety in the wake of several violent episodes against students that were allegedly tinged with overtones of animosity towards homosexuals. Plaintiffs have alleged, with factual specificity, that the GSA was founded to address these issues and that, per OHS policy, they approached Wiersma having satified what they knew to be the requirements for the school recognition of a club, and that she rejected Plaintiff's request.

The short answer is Principal Wiersma discriminated against the club and then came up with reasons that didn't even hold up in the dismissal hearing.