The Docket: October 23, 2026
The Docket is PLF’s weekly newsletter covering the cases, clients, and policy battles shaping the future of liberty in America. You can catch up on last week’s Docket here and subscribe below to receive future editions in your inbox.
An Ohio thoroughbred trainer partners with PLF to affirm her constitutional right to a jury trial; Maryland parents take their fight for equality in education to the Supreme Court; and the official trailer for PLF’s first feature film is now available.
PLF heads back to SCOTUS to challenge racial discrimination in public school admissions
On Monday, the Supreme Court agreed to hear our case on behalf of a group of mostly Asian American parents challenging the racially discriminatory admissions scheme Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) uses for its prestigious middle school magnet programs.
In her latest on the PLF blog, Brittany Hunter takes us back to 2013, when MCPS began exploring ways to “fix” what it perceived as a racial imbalance among the student body. She walks us through the parents’ years-long fight—from a dismissal in district court and a failed appeal to the Supreme Court’s decision to take the case—alongside the broader efforts to restore equal treatment in communities across the nation.
Introducing If You Can Make It Here—PLF’s first feature film
The official trailer for PLF’s first feature film, If You Can Make It Here, is now available.
The story centers on our ongoing lawsuit challenging racially motivated and discriminatory changes to the admissions process at New York City’s prestigious Specialized High Schools—Stuyvesant, Brooklyn Tech, and Bronx Science.
The film tracks three students as they prepare for the SHSAT, the rigorous admissions test for getting into a Specialized High School, and includes interviews with parents and other activists fighting to protect the schools’ storied legacies.
Details on the official release date and select screenings in DC and New York will be announced in the coming weeks.
Thoroughbred trainer fights for her right to a judge and jury
Erin Thompson is an Ohio thoroughbred horse trainer. In 2025, a sample taken from one of her horses, Motion to Adjourn, tested positive for clenbuterol, a decongestant that’s banned in horseracing without a prescription from a veterinarian.
Erin says she was “completely baffled” by the news and felt her “stomach just hit the bottom of the ground.” She doesn’t keep clenbuterol in her stables and denies ever giving it to her horses. Still, a private arbitrator suspended her for two years and fined her $25,000—without a jury or an independent court ever hearing her case.
Now, with PLF’s help, Erin is challenging the private enforcement, fighting to save her career and affirm her constitutional right to a trial by jury.
