After waiting over a year-and-a-half, the federal judge denied Amy Dankel and Robert Montgomery's motion for summary judgment. This case is moving into discovery, which means we will be requesting their documents and taking depositions to prove our case for trial. Discovery gets very expensive, and so we need your help. We estimate needing at least $75,000 to proceed to trial.

Since it has been 10 months since the parties completed their briefing on the motions to dismiss, I emailed the court coordinator today to find out if we can expect a ruling anytime soon. If not, we will likely file a writ of mandamus with the Fifth Circuit to try and get a ruling.

All,

Sorry that I haven't posted an update in a while. We have been extremely busy in my law firm. We are almost coming up on a year since the briefing on the various motions has been completed and have not received any decision from the judge. Our remedies for this are limited as federal judges generally have wide discretion as to when they get to their rulings. I would say that a year is definitely excessive. If we do not get a decision by the end of August, I will email the court coordinator to let the judge know that we will need a file a writ of mandamus with the Fifth Circuit to compel a decision if we do not get one within a year. Thank you again for your generous donations.

Paul

We are still waiting for the judge to rule on two pending motions for summary judgment on the issue of qualified immunity so that we can take discovery on MISD Board President Dankel, the McKinney police officers, and others involved. We need to raise another $10k ASAP to be ready to serve written discovery and start scheduling depositions. Please consider supporting us to establish precedent that these tyrants can't throw conservatives out of school board meetings for expressing their viewpoint!

Just ripped Dankel and the Cops' summary judgment arguments to shreds in these two briefs: (1) Response to the McKinney Police Officers' Motion for Summary Judgment: https://drive.proton.me/urls/GXYYZZKEWC#ggvXfP6KPoYl. (2) Sur-Reply response to Dankel MSJ Reply Brief: https://drive.proton.me/urls/PRTFPMDD7M#flhqfj67mxla

Thanks again for your support!

Thanks to everyone who donated to keep this lawsuit alive! I meant to post this earlier but here is the response we filed to Dankel's Motion for Summary Judgment: https://drive.proton.me/urls/GTQNZX0VJC#UDl5LsYLV1dl I firmly believe we will survive summary judgment and move into the discovery phase. Our response to the McKinney police motion is due this Thursday. We will need to have funds on hand to start conducting discovery once we get through the qualified-immunity-summary-judgment stage. Any assistance you can provide is much needed and appreciated!

Thank you all so much for your support. MISD Board President, Amy Dankel, filed a Motion for Summary Judgment on Qualified Immunity trying to claim that she is immune from liability in this lawsuit. We know that she is NOT! But it is a LOT of work to respond to this complex motion and her motion to stay discovery. She is trying to avoid having to produce documents and participate in depositions. Don't let her! Here is a copy of her Summary Judgment motion which seeks to dismiss the case against her: https://drive.proton.me/urls/E5B827BQNM#Qb44rKX7kcoU I am working hard on the response. Here also is a copy of her Motion to Stay and/or Limit Discovery: https://drive.proton.me/urls/77TXSRZTGG#KRaPaGboxPfw

My research in response to the three motions to dismiss indicated that the Plaintiffs' claims in this case against Dankel, Montgomery, and the police should be based in viewpoint discrimination under the First Amendment and nothing else. This Second Amended Complaint mooted most of the issues raised in the motions to dismiss and will ensure that this case moves past the initial pleadings stage and into discovery. But, we need your help to take discovery and depose the defendants because we have no money left in the account after all the work last month. Please consider donating to keep this lawsuit alive! Here is a link to view the Second Amended Complaint: https://drive.proton.me/urls/H6XB5226KC#LeGWhKPepaFH

I spent about 80 hours researching and analyzing case law and drafting these briefs to defeat the motions to dismiss from Dankel and the police officers. Thank you all for your donations that helped us get through that. My law firm still took a loss last month because we had to put off paying clients to keep this lawsuit alive. So, to keep going, we will need to raise more funds to get through discovery with depositions and document requests. We really appreciate your help. Here is a link to view our responses to the three motions to dismiss: https://drive.proton.me/urls/29HVWQSFRW#UJ9U8xcfbgvA

I spent about 80 hours researching and analyzing case law and drafting these briefs to defeat the motions to dismiss from Dankel and the police officers. Thank you all for your donations that helped us get through that. My law firm still took a loss last month because we had to put off paying clients to keep this lawsuit alive. So, to keep going, we will need to raise more funds to get through discovery with depositions and document requests. We really appreciate your help. Here is a link to view our responses to the three motions to dismiss: https://drive.proton.me/urls/29HVWQSFRW#UJ9U8xcfbgvA

Thank you so much for your continued support of our efforts to hold the McKinney ISD Board of Trustee accountable. I am working around the clock to keep this lawsuit alive and could not do that without your support. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. - Paul 

As an update, the police officers have filed a motion to dismiss based on qualified immunity basically saying they acted within the scope of their authority without clearly violating constitutional rights in dragging the plaintiffs out of the school board meeting at Board President Amy Dankel's direction. Dankel has also filed a motion to dismiss that I am currently analyzing. You can find the police motion to dismiss here: https://drive.proton.me/urls/0MG0HTRYNM#c8YrUPLzH5y2  and Dankel's motion to dismiss here: https://drive.proton.me/urls/RX62WS1QTC#9r8aRCW8R0HB You can also view the plaintiffs' complain with all the facts of what happened here: https://drive.proton.me/urls/CMKJANWK18#8oIVIv5ZWypR

We are excited to announce that we have retained Jim Herblin to provide accountability into how your donations will be used. We want you to have confidence that every penny you donate to our lawsuits is being used efficiently and for the purpose you donated.

Every month, we will post an invoice detailing the work performed and expenses incurred. Jim will review the invoice prior to the funds being disbursed. Note that we apply a 25% discount on the market rate for attorneys' fees for this public interest work. Here is a link to the invoice for the month of May so you can see how your donations were used: https://drive.proton.me/urls/HYWEBPZQ88#6RPv1KVj7hgV

Yesterday, the McKinney ISD school board took their legally baseless witch hunt allegations against Chad Green to the next level by formally censuring him. The board's actions were illegal under the Texas Open Meetings Act because the board deliberated in closed session about Mr. Green over his lawful request to move deliberations to open session under section 551.074 of the Texas Open Meetings Act. The board knows their allegations against Mr. Green are baseless. This was apparent when Mr. Green made a motion to have the allegations referred to the Collin County District Attorney, and no one seconded the motion.

Despite this disturbing developments, it was encouraging to see the effect of our First Amendment lawsuit. Previously, supporters of Chad Green were removed from the meetings if they clapped or commented. Yesterday, however, the reluctance of Amy Dankel to order the removal of Green's supporters for clapping and cheering in response to speeches was obvious. The only person removed was a man opposing Chad Green because he belligerently stood up and interrupted the meeting. Many people, including yours truly, believe this event was staged to make Amy Dankel look less partisan in the wake of the lawsuit, but it's a little late for that.

Here is a Texas Scorecard article detailing yesterday's meeting: https://texasscorecard.com/local/mckinney-school-board-censures-conservative-trustee/

We only have a little over $3,000 raised which is not nearly enough to keep our lawsuit going, and we need to file additional lawsuits against MISD. Please consider donating to our cause. Also, we have just hired an outside accountant to manage the fund and provide accountability.

Here is the link to read the lawsuit: https://drive.proton.me/urls/PADTMVJCJ0#qAV1MDegTy6O

This is the first of several lawsuits we plan to file to fight back against MISD. This lawsuit, Gonzales et al v. Dankel et al, Case No. 4:22-cv-00416, in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, is filed against MISD school board president, Amy Dankel and the McKinney Police officers who assisted her, for violating the First Amendment rights of parents and community members. Dankel had the McKinney Police forcibly remove attendees at the April board meeting for violating rules she set to restrict free speech. Dankel revealed that her rules only existed to silence those who came to the meeting to speak out against pornographic books in MISD schools when she had only those opposing the books (wearing green) removed while those supporting her (wearing blue) were not removed for similar violations. Thank you for your donations. We can't file the other lawsuits we plan to file to get the books out of the schools and to defend conservative board member Chad Green until we get more donations in. Every little bit helps.