WE ARE 100% INDEPENDENT AND READER-FUNDED. FOR A GUARANTEED AD-FREE EXPERIENCE AND TO SUPPORT REAL NEWS, PLEASE SIGN UP HERE, TODAY.
The United States Supreme Court ruled six to three on Friday in favor of a group of Maryland parents seeking opt-outs to prevent their children from being exposed to LGBTQ books and materials “designed to ‘disrupt’ children’s thinking about sexuality and gender.” According to the Montgomery County, Maryland School Board, teachers are not required to notify parents when using LGBTQ materials, prompting the parents to sue and seek an injunction against the policy.
“Today, we hold that the parents have shown that they are entitled to a preliminary injunction. A government burdens the religious exercise of parents when it requires them to submit their children to instruction that poses ‘a very real threat of undermining’ the religious beliefs and practices that the parents wish to instill,” Justice Samuel Alito wrote for the majority. “And a government cannot condition the benefit of free public education on parents’ acceptance of such instruction. Based on these principles, we conclude that the parents are likely to succeed in their challenge to the Board’s policies.”
“The practice of educating one’s children in one’s religious beliefs, like all religious acts and practices, receives a generous measure of protection from our Constitution,” Alito explained, adding: “And this is not merely a right to teach religion in the confines of one’s own home. Rather, it extends to the choices that parents wish to make for their children outside the home. It protects, for example, a parent’s decision to send his or her child to a private religious school instead of a public school.”
“Specifically, until all appellate review in this case is completed, the Board should be ordered to notify them in advance whenever one of the books in question or any other similar book is to be used in any way and to allow them to have their children excused from that instruction,” the ruling concludes.
Image by Quinn Dombrowski.
show less
The United States Supreme Court ruled six to three on Friday in favor of a group of Maryland parents seeking opt-outs to prevent their children from being exposed to LGBTQ books and materials “designed to ‘disrupt’ children’s thinking about sexuality and gender.” According to the Montgomery County, Maryland School Board, teachers are not required to notify parents when using LGBTQ materials, prompting the parents to sue and seek an injunction against the policy.
show more
show more
