A letter signed by the 11 Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee demanded that Attorney General Merrick Garland withdraw his October 4 memo ordering the FBI to investigate parents who speak out at school board meetings against leftist classroom indoctrination, particularly of the racist ideology known as Critical Race Theory.

“Are concerned parents domestic terrorists or not?” the letter begins. “No arm of the government, including the offices under your command, may be used to chill criticism of local government officials. By involving the FBI’s Counterterrorism Division in this matter, that is exactly what you have done.”

Describing school officials as persons who “just happen to be a major constituency of the political party that currently controls the White House and the Department of Justice,” the senators write that the use of counterterrorism tools against parents is the federal government’s attempt to flex its “muscle in [the] marketplace of ideas.”

“Make no mistake about it — there are those who would be perfectly happy with the federal government, now including the FBI’s Counterterrorism Division, scaring people out of criticizing local school boards,” the letter continues. “A big part of this problem, which you either do not understand or are complicit in, is that too many people nowadays equate ideas they do not like with violence.”

“You have given life to the idea that dissidents are synonymous with terrorists,” the senators concluded. “This is a common tactic of third-world dictatorships, but it should never be FBI practice.”