The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit this week dismissed a case against a Portland, Oregon, public school district where students were encouraged to attend an anti-gun protest, saying that the issue was about peer pressure rather than compelled speech. The lawsuit was filed in 2019 by two couples on behalf of their three children attending schools at Portland Public Schools (PPS). The parents, who described themselves as a pro-gun political minority, claimed that their First Amendment rights were violated when the district took part in a nationwide school “walkout” protest in favor of stricter government control on guns. The protest took place on March 18, 2018, a month after a teenager shot and killed 17 of his former classmates and teachers at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. According to the complaint (pdf), students at PPS were “expected to participate in these demonstrations unless they …