WASHINGTON—The Heritage Foundation's Legal Action Center, which advocates for liberty across all areas of public-interest litigation, today announced it is representing the Elizabeth School District in Elizabeth, Colorado, as its first client.  

The Legal Action Center is partnering with Jonathan Mitchell, who is the former Solicitor General of Texas and architect of the Texas Heartbeat Bill, and First & Fourteenth PLLC, to defend the Elizabeth School District after they were sued by the ACLU and others for removing, after consultation with their schools’ parents, sexually explicit and age-inappropriate materials from their school libraries.

Justin Butterfield, director of the Legal Action Center, made the following statement:  

"Elizabeth School District is working to honor the reasonable expectations of its parents that the children they entrust to the district are not exposed to sexually explicit books.

"The ACLU’s lawsuit would impose on public school districts the duty to make sexually inappropriate materials available to young children, regardless of the wishes of the overwhelming majority of parents.

"The Heritage Foundation stands with Elizabeth School District as it supports its parents’ rights to protect their children from being exposed to such materials."

The case, Crookshanks v. Elizabeth School District, in the United States District Court for the District of Colorado, is set to go to trial in December.

Justin Butterfield is admitted in Texas and is not admitted in D.C.; any practice within D.C. is limited to matters and proceedings before federal courts and agencies.