US Court of Appeals Rules Against Genocide Deniers

The United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Wednesday upheld a lower court ruling that prevented the insertion of literature denying the Armenian Genocide into the state school curriculum. The unanimous opinion written by retired Supreme Court Justice David Souter, sitting on a three judge panel that included Michael Boudin and Jeffery R. Howard of Appeals Court dismissed the Griswold v. Driscoll case, in which plaintiffs were arguing for the inclusion of literature that denied the Armenian Genocide in the Massachusetts state human rights curriculum. The appeals court said that the Guide on Armenian Genocide instruction “fit into the curriculum classification … [and] that law would not allow the genocide denial actions that the plaintiffs sought.”