Ernie Trakas's Appointment as Senior Civil Rights Lawyer Will Help Restore Parental Rights in Education
Source: Ashley Bateman. "The Lawyer Helping The Education Dept Fight For Parental Rights." September 22, 2026. thefederalist.com
The Gist
The article argues that hiring lawyer Ernie Trakas to a top civil rights position in the Education Department is a big win for parents' rights. It claims he has a strong history of fighting for parents and against what the author calls harmful 'gender ideology' in schools, and that his legal skills make him well-suited to fix a broken education system before it's potentially dismantled.
Conclusion
Ernie Trakas's appointment as senior counsel in the Education Department's Office for Civil Rights is a critical and positive development that can help roll back decades of institutional harm and restore parental rights and child safety protections within the public education system.
Premises
- Trakas has a demonstrated track record of successfully litigating parental rights cases, including Blair v. Appomattox County School Board and Landerer v. Dover Area School District.
- Trakas has experience protecting women's sports by representing coaches like Melissa Batie-Smoose who opposed biological males competing in women's athletics.
- The Education Department and public schools have engaged in systemic wrongdoing, including secrecy policies toward parents, promotion of 'queer ideology,' and failures to protect children from abuse.
- Parental authority over children, once upheld by courts in the 1920s, has been eroded by increasing federal and ideological control over education since the mid-1900s.
- There are nearly 3,000 open Title IX investigations, indicating widespread ongoing civil rights violations in schools that require skilled legal enforcement.
- Colleagues and legal peers attest to Trakas's professional excellence, legal strategy mastery, and genuine care for clients.
- Previous executive and legislative efforts (e.g., rescinded Title IX agreements, Parents Bill of Rights Act) have had limited success, suggesting a need for a skilled insider like Trakas to enforce reforms.
Assumptions
- Parental rights and control over children's education should take precedence over school-based discretion regarding gender identity, sexuality, and health information.
- Policies supporting transgender-inclusive practices in schools are inherently harmful or ideologically driven rather than protective or educational.
- Legal and civil rights enforcement mechanisms can meaningfully reverse systemic issues in a 'broken' public education system.
- The Education Department's eventual dismantling is a desirable or inevitable outcome.
- Individual legal appointments can significantly influence large-scale institutional and cultural change.
- Cases cited (e.g., Blair, Landerer, Batie-Smoose) are representative of broader systemic patterns rather than isolated incidents.