Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon fired off a powerful message after a federal judge’s ruling in a New Hampshire school district case in which parents contend that their free speech and civil rights were violated.
Dhillon’s response followed Attorney General Pam Bondi’s response to the federal court ruling on Monday that the Bow School District acted “reasonably” in preventing some parents from protesting transgender athletes at a high school soccer game last year. One of the parents in the lawsuit vowed to keep fighting, and the case caught Bondi’s attention.
“I have asked my @CivilRights Division to examine this matter. This DOJ stands with women and their supportive parents,” the attorney general wrote in a post on X in response to one by Riley Gaines on the case in which parents were not allowed to wear pink-colored “XX” wristbands during a Bow High School girls’ soccer game where Parker Tirrell, a transgender athlete who is now 16, played on the opposing team.
I have asked my @CivilRights Division to examine this matter. This DOJ stands with women and their supportive parents. https://t.co/5sJZ0dEQ1y
— Attorney General Pamela Bondi (@AGPamBondi) April 16, 2025
Bondi made good on her word, and soon her new chief of the Civil Rights Division weighed in with a fierce message
“This ruling is unconstitutional and will not stand,” Harmeet K. Dhillon posted on X, adding that the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division “is examining this closely.”
“Every father has not only a right but also a duty to stand up for his daughters, and the right to free speech is not curtailed by subjective ‘feelings,'” she added, noting in a follow-up: “Never fear, our AG @AGPamBondi and her team, of which I’m proudly a part, have made it a priority to protect parental and girls’ rights.”
“It’s the FIRST amendment for a reason!” Dhillon, who has been on the job for a few short weeks, declared.
Never fear, our AG @AGPamBondi and her team, of which I’m proudly a part, have made it a priority to protect parental and girls’ rights. It’s the FIRST amendment for a reason! https://t.co/VY0wzkahiF
— Harmeet K. Dhillon (@HarmeetKDhillon) April 16, 2025
Gaines, a former athlete who boldly stands up for women’s safety and privacy, had posted her reaction to the ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Steven McAuliffe that the “narrow, plausibly inoffensive” intentions of the protesting parents were not First Amendment-protected speech, as adults attending a high school athletic event could not act in a way that would be demeaning to students.
“While plaintiffs may very well have never intended to communicate a demeaning or harassing message directed at Parker Tirrell or any other transgender students, the symbols and posters they displayed were fully capable of conveying such a message,” the judge wrote.”The broader and more demeaning/harassing message the School District understood plaintiffs’ ‘XX’ symbols to convey was, in context, entirely reasonable.”
Anthony Foote, one of the parents who brought the lawsuit, told NHJournal that he will not give up.
“What was our offense? Supporting girls’ sports and defending biological reality?” Foote said. “This ruling is a slap in the face to every parent who believes schools should be a place of fairness, not political indoctrination. The judge openly admitted that Pride flags are allowed because they promote ‘inclusion,’ but wristbands defending women’s sports are banned because they might ‘offend’ someone. That’s viewpoint discrimination, plain and simple — and it’s unconstitutional.”
