OK: Trump Judge Stalls Decision On Gag Law Injunction

Way back in September of 2021, in the height of the CRT panic, Oklahoma jumped on the gag law bandwagon with HB 1775. The bill included the usual list of Naughty Things Teachers Must Not Say, the same list in most of these laws and copied from Donald Trump's executive order to clamp down in CRT (whatever that might be), all vague and unclear enough to exert a chilling effect on teaching about race in the US.

It's HB 1775 that has given Oklahoma such special moments as Education Dudebro Ryan Walters explaining that the Tulsa Race Riots can be taught, just don't say they were racially motivated. And then try to take it back, sort of. This, mind you, from a guy who was an actual honest-to-goodness history teacher.

The ACLU and some other folks including students and teachers filed a lawsuit against the new law in October of 2021. They asked for an injunction to block the bill. Both sides had finished filing written arguments 19 months ago. 

And since then, nothing but the sound of the wind sweeping down the plain.

What's the holdup? Nobody knows. The plaintiffs have attempted to encourage the court to cough up a decision, but it hasn't helped.

The judge who is apparently pondering the issue at considerable length is U. S. District Judge Charles B. Goodwin, a Trump appointee. It took two tries; Goodwin was part of Trump's string of judge nominees rated "unqualified" by the American Bar Association. Goodwin at least had previous judge experience. The unqualified rating was apparently because of "work ethic" e.g. his habit of not showing up at court until noon. Goodwin protested that he was just a guy who liked to do a lot of his work at home. 

So who knows. Maybe there's a ruling tucked under a coffee table in his home somewhere. Maybe I shouldn't criticize, since the Institute operates out of a corner of my residence. Of course, I'm not a federal judge, and it doesn't take me two years to get my work done.