Litkouhi v. Rochester Community Schools District
Rochester Community Schools Trustee Carol Beth Litkouhi filed a lawsuit against the district for restricting her speech after she informed the public about a countywide millage proposal.
Rochester Schools trustee Carol Beth Litkouhi has filed a lawsuit to protect her right to speak to her constituents. The lawsuit names the Rochester Community Schools District and its trustees acting in their official capacity who voted to censure her. Represented by the Mackinac Center Legal Foundation, Litkouhi is challenging a newly revised school board bylaw that restricts what elected trustees may say publicly.
The school board revised an existing bylaw in May 2025 to restrict trustees from speaking publicly. Then, when Oakland County began considering a new countywide millage in October 2025, Litkouhi told local residents about it. While many districts discussed the proposal publicly, Rochester Community Schools’ superintendent and school board leaders encouraged trustees to support the millage — and to keep their discussions about it from the public.
Believing that residents had a right to know about a potential tax increase, Litkouhi wrote an op-ed for The Detroit News. The school board responded by accusing her of sharing confidential information — without identifying what, if anything, she wrote was confidential — and voted to censure her and strip her of all committee assignments. She retains only her voting rights as a trustee.
The First Amendment protects the speech of elected officials just like everyone else, and people who hold public office do not surrender their constitutional rights once they take office. The Mackinac Center lawsuit argues that Rochester Schools’ bylaw is unconstitutionally overbroad, vague, and expressly designed to silence dissenting trustees by restricting their ability to engage with the community on matters of public concern.
Trustees must be able to speak freely with the people they serve, especially when government decisions involve policy that directly affects the community.
If the bylaw revision is allowed to stand, it would establish a dangerous precedent that school boards and other public bodies can forbid elected members from discussing public matters with the people they represent.
“I ran for this office because I care deeply about our community and our schools,” said Carol Beth Litkouhi. “Silencing trustees only hurts the families we’re supposed to serve. I will always choose openness over secrecy, because the people who elected me deserve transparency from their officials.”
“Elected officials do not surrender their First Amendment rights when they take office,” said Derk Wilcox, senior attorney at the Mackinac Center Legal Foundation. “Rochester’s policy attempts to silence Carol Beth and keep her constituents in the dark about decisions that directly affect them.”
The lawsuit was filed on February 3, 2026 in the 52nd District Court of Oakland County.
