{"id":2530,"date":"2026-07-23T15:30:52","date_gmt":"2026-07-23T15:30:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cnnglobalnews.com\/2026\/07\/23\/us-court-backs-firing-of-educator-over-anti-trans-books\/"},"modified":"2026-07-23T15:30:52","modified_gmt":"2026-07-23T15:30:52","slug":"us-court-backs-firing-of-educator-over-anti-trans-books","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cnnglobalnews.com\/?p=2530","title":{"rendered":"US court backs firing of educator over anti-trans books"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two Obama- and Biden-appointed judges dismissed the Oregon school employee\u2019s case over the right to display the books in his office<\/strong><\/p>\n

An Oregon school employee who was fired for displaying children\u2019s books that reject transgender ideology cannot challenge their dismissal, a US appeals court has ruled.<\/p>\n

Two Obama and Biden-appointed judges dismissed education specialist and licensed clinical social worker Roderick Theis II\u2019s First Amendment right to display \u2018He Is He\u2019 and \u2018She Is She\u2019 in his office at La Grande Middle School. Theis also displayed conservative commentator Matt Walsh\u2019s \u2018Johnny the Walrus\u2019, a satirical children\u2019s book about a boy struggling with his \u2018walrus\u2019 identity, at another school office.<\/p>\n

The district received a complaint and called the books a \u201cbias incident\u201d<\/em> against transgender students. Theis denied that he tried to harm anyone, but was ordered to remove them whenever students were present.<\/p>\n

A judge later allowed him to display the books only when his office was empty, but at one point, several students came in and asked to read them. A teacher filmed the encounter and filed a complaint, after which the district fired Theis.<\/p>\n

He sued the district, arguing that the order and his subsequent firing violated his First Amendment right to free speech.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed the free speech case and upheld Theis\u2019 dismissal in a 2-1 ruling.<\/p>\n

Judges John Owens and Jennifer Sung, appointed by former presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden respectively, said the books could be treated as the school\u2019s own message because they were visible to students while Theis was working.<\/p>\n

Trump-appointed Judge Lawrence VanDyke issued a fierce dissent, arguing that the books were personal office decorations no different from Pride flags, Black Lives Matter posters, or political endorsements displayed by other employees.<\/p>\n

\n Read more<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\n \"Pro-trans
US Supreme Court upholds transgender bans in female sports<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/blockquote>\n

He argued that \u201cTheis\u2019s expression is protected by the First Amendment,\u201d<\/em> and that the ruling effectively gave schools sweeping power to promote one political message while suppressing the opposing view.<\/p>\n

The appeals court previously ruled against Olympus Spa, a women-only Korean nude spa that had been ordered to admit transgender-identifying male customers. The spa is currently seeking to take its case to the US Supreme Court.<\/p>\n

The ruling comes amid a wider rollback of transgender and DEI policies in the US. The Trump administration has restricted military service for people with gender dysphoria, moved against medical transition for minors, dismantled federal DEI programs, and backed sex-based rules in women\u2019s sports.<\/p>\n

While Republican-led states have adopted similar measures, Democratic-led jurisdictions, activists, and some courts have continued to defend gender-identity-based policies.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two Obama- and Biden-appointed judges dismissed the Oregon school employee\u2019s case over the right to display the books in his office An Oregon school employee who was fired for displaying … Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":2531,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2530","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-news","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cnnglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2530","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cnnglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cnnglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cnnglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2530"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.cnnglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2530\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cnnglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2530"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cnnglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2530"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cnnglobalnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2530"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}