Published April 23, 2025
On April 23, 2025, Ethics and Public Policy Center fellow Eric Kniffin filed an amicus brief in Littlejohn v. School Board of Leon County, Florida. This case was brought by Florida parents after school district officials secretly met with their middle school daughter to develop a “gender support plan” that let her choose what name, pronouns, and restrooms she would use, and with what sex she would be housed on overnight trips.
The Eleventh Circuit’s panel held that the Littlejohns failed to state a claim. It also reasoned that the application of the school’s “gender support plan” through its “LGBTQ+ Guide” did not “shock the conscience” because the school meant to “help the child.”
Kniffin’s amicus brief, filed in support of the Littlejohns’ petition to rehear the case en banc, argues that the Eleventh Circuit’s panel decision incorrectly applies prior precedent and fails to recognize the violation of the Littlejohns’ fundamental constitutional right to direct the care of their child — regardless of whether that violation passes a subjective test of “shock[ing] the conscience.”
Eric Kniffin is a fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, where he works on a range of initiatives to protect and strengthen religious liberty as part of EPPC’s Administrative State Accountability Project.
