Planned Parenthood of Southern Nevada v. Clark County School District

Clark County School District (district) (defendant) authorized its high schools to run student newspapers. The district gave individual principals the authority to run ads in the newspapers and to adopt guidelines concerning how to accept or reject those ads. Most district high schools adopted such policies, which generally excluded obscene ads or ads for age-inappropriate products such as tobacco, alcohol, and pornography. Planned Parenthood of Southern Nevada, Inc. (Planned Parenthood) (plaintiff), an organization that provided a variety of reproductive-health services, sought to advertise in district newspapers. The majority of district high schools rejected Planned Parenthood’s ads. Justifications for the rejections included a desire not to have the school appear to be taking sides on a controversial issue and apprehension that running the ads could interfere with schools’ sexual-education curricula. Planned Parenthood sued, claiming that the rejections violated the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. The district court initially ruled in favor of Planned Parenthood. However, after the United States Supreme Court issued its ruling in Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier, the district court withdrew its initial decision and ultimately ruled in favor of the district. A panel on the court of appeals affirmed, and the court of appeals agreed to rehear the appeal en banc.