In 2021, Shenandoah County renamed Stonewall Jackson High School and Ashby Lee Elementary School. After new school-board elections, the board voted in 2024 to restore the Confederate names. Families of students and the Virginia State Conference NAACP sued.

The plaintiffs argued that students would be forced to use, wear, and identify with the restored names in school life. For example, student athletes would have to wear uniforms carrying the Stonewall Jackson name and team identity. They argued that this could compel students to communicate or associate themselves with a message they rejected. The school board argued that choosing school names is government speech and that the First Amendment did not give students a right to control those choices.

At the motion-to-dismiss stage, the court allowed the compelled-speech claim to continue. It emphasized the unusual allegations: the board had previously retired the names because of their discriminatory meaning and later restored them, while students allegedly would be required to display or use the names in school activities. The court did not rule that the plaintiffs had already proven a First Amendment violation. It held that discovery was needed to determine whether students were actually being compelled to speak or endorse a message.

The case is important because it distinguishes between a government choosing its own message and forcing students to personally carry or communicate that message. Whether that line was crossed remained an open factual question in this decision.