Two former high school athletes have settled a free speech lawsuit against the Oregon School Activities Association stemming from a dispute that began when the girls stepped off the medal podium at a state championship last May to protest competing against a transgender athlete.
As reported by KTTH 770AM in Seattle, Alexa Anderson and Reese Eckard alleged that OSAA officials punished their protest by excluding them from the official podium photo and refusing to hand over the medals they earned. Anderson claimed an official told her the medals would be shipped to the school, but “they were never shipped.”
Per the reporting of KTTH's Jasneet Gill, the settlement successfully restored the medals to Anderson and Eckard, but it also highlighted the league’s uneven application of free speech rules regarding political expression. A separate legal challenge concerning Title IX protections for women’s sports remains ongoing.
The athletes filed a free speech lawsuit in July, and their legal team, the America First Policy Institute, claims the medals were only finally delivered to their law firm afterward. A key part of the athletes’ legal argument focused on the OSAA allowing certain political messages, such as those supporting Black Lives Matter and pro-LGBTQ pride, while allegedly punishing their protest.
A U.S. District Court Judge last month sided with the athletes by refusing to strike down this part of the lawsuit, keeping the issue of selective speech enforcement relevant, Gill reported.
With the core goals of the lawsuit achieved, the athletes’ AFPI lawyers moved to dismiss the case, a move the OSAA did not oppose. AFPI chief legal affairs officer Leigh Ann O’Neill called the settlement a “major victory,” ensuring the girls not only received their earned medals but also had their First Amendment right to peaceful expression restored.
