If there's one thing that undergirds parental rights, it is this: Parents know what's best for their own children.
If there's a second, it's Wisconsin v. Yoder, where the Supreme Court ruled that the child "is not the mere creature of the state" and that parents have the right "to direct the upbringing and education of children under their control."
Enter Mahmoud v. Taylor, which is currently before the Supreme Court. At issue, according to Amy Howe at ScotusBlog, is "Whether public schools burden parents’ religious exercise when they compel elementary school children to participate in instruction on gender and sexuality against their parents’ religious convictions and without notice or opportunity to opt out." Moreover, it will rule on who knows best: parents or school bureaucrats.
The case involves a school district in Montgomery County, Md., which thought it would be a good idea to force LGBTQ+ materials on children as young as age three—including vulnerable kids with special needs.
Here's one example:
NOW: The Supreme Court is hearing oral arguments in Mahmoud v. Taylor, which considers whether religious parents can opt their young children out of mandatory readings of LGBTQ storybooks.
— Katelynn Richardson (@katesrichardson) April 22, 2025
This is one of the books in the case, “What Are Your Words?”
“My pronouns are like the… pic.twitter.com/4XffL7iMCp
Howe explained on Tuesday, as oral arguments before the Supreme Court began:
When the county announced in 2023 that it would not allow parents to opt to have their children excused from instruction involving the storybooks, a group of Muslim, Catholic, and Ukrainian Orthodox parents went to federal court. They contended that the refusal to give them the option to opt their children out violated their constitutional right to freely exercise their religion – specifically, their ability to instruct their children on issues of gender and sexuality according to their faith and to control when and how these issues are introduced to their children.
The school district claimed that it's just too hard to allow parents to opt their kids out of the explicit content and, rather than getting rid of the highly controversial books, told parents to suck it up. Several of them sued, citing the aforementioned Wisconsin v. Yoder.
NPR's Nina Totenberg reported that the school district will argue that "it is a logistical nightmare to take children out of a classroom when a single story book that features same-sex parents or gay and lesbian kids could come up at any time. Among the logistical questions are where to put the opt-out kids and for how long? And how would the schools then meet the needs for alternative lesson plans?" [Emphasis added]
If that's not a shot across the bow, I don't know what is. The district is saying, in essence, that there's nowhere to hide from LGBTQ+ indoctrination in public schools.
More from NPR:
Parents of multiple faiths, and even kids, mobilized to have their views heard by the school board, with as many as 1,000 people gathering for one school board meeting. At one of these meetings, a boy who identified himself as Nick said he liked having story books that included LGBTQ characters.
"We have rights, too," he said. "We deserve to have books in our school that teach people about LGBTQ and stuff. It's not touching you, hurting you physically … I don't know why you hate it so much." [Emphasis added]
Sorry, kiddo. Minors do not have the right to determine the curriculum adopted by a public school district. That's the domain of the school board, which is accountable to parents. Or it ought to be, anyway. That's what the Supreme Court will decide.
Totenberg interviewed one of the plaintiffs in the case, Grace Peterson, whose daughter with Down Syndrome had LGBTQ+ books forced on her at school. Peterson pulled her daughter out of school and began homeschooling because the girl found the books confusing.
"It's just very heartbreaking to me how many parents feel like they have to choose between educating their child and raising their children in their faith," she said.
The Becket Legal Fund for Religious Liberty, which is representing the parents, explained in a Court brief:
Amending [the school's prior opt-out] policy in response to parents’ religious objections further evinced a lack of general applicability—and non-neutrality too. When parents protested the policy change, the Board responded with a slew of hateful comments comparing the (religiously and racially diverse) Petitioners to “white supremacists” and “xenophobes.” That is the opposite of government neutrality towards religion.
As leftists always do.
During oral arguments on Tuesday, Eric Baxter, representing the plaintiffs, declared, “This was clearly targeted at religious parents.”
Of course it is. The Progressive Pervert Train cannot, in fact, progress without legions of sycophants who learned at a young age how to parrot the Official Talking Points.
Jonathan Turley had one of the smartest takes on the school district's case:
There is an irony in the position before the Supreme Court by public educators. A reversal may be a critical change in slowing the departure of families from public schools. One of the families discussed in this case sold their house to afford private schooling for their children.
By limiting such mandatory programs, some families may be less likely to seek alternatives to public schools. These families want to send their children to public schools while retaining their role in instilling religious values for their children. Montgomery County is forcing a choice that few parents will make against their family values.
As on earlier controversies over parental rights, Democrats will find that this is not partisan; it is primal for parents.
But we all know the truth: The Education Establishment doesn't care about the children or their parents. They care about keeping the teachers' unions' bank accounts full and pushing the progressive narrative. They'll do it until the Supreme Court intervenes. Let's hope the Court does the right thing and reaffirms parental rights.
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