The US Supreme Court said public school parents have a right to opt out of classroom lessons that intrude on their religious beliefs, ruling that a Maryland county probably violated the Constitution by using LGBTQ-friendly books without notice to parents.
The 6-3 ruling Friday is the latest in a line of Supreme Court decisions that have bolstered religious rights, even when they bump up against other societal values. In the latest case, officials in Montgomery County said they were trying to ensure their elementary school curriculum reflected the diversity of their community, including its LGBTQ families.
Writing for the conservative majority, Justice Samuel Alito said that parents’ education of their children on religious beliefs “receives a generous measure of protection from our Constitution.”
“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,” Alito wrote. “And a government cannot condition the benefit of free public education on parents’ acceptance of such instruction.”
The Montgomery County program includes a book about a girl who is upset about her favorite uncle’s upcoming engagement to a man until the fiancé befriends her. Another book, approved for use as early as kindergarten, centers on a child named Penelope who tells his mother he is a boy.
“Like all other books in the language-arts curriculum, these storybooks impart critical reading skills through engaging, age-appropriate stories,” the county said in its Supreme Court brief. The school system “adheres to a careful, public, participatory selection process to ensure those criteria are met.”
The program was challenged by six parents, led by Muslims Tamer Mahmoud and Enas Barakat.
School officials said the parents needed to show that they or their children were being coerced into modifying their religious beliefs or practices. The parents said that coercion isn’t the proper test and that the Constitution bars government-run schools from interfering with the religious upbringing of children.
Montgomery County schools at one point provided notice to parents about planned lessons and allowed opt-outs, but the school district changed its policy before the 2023-24 academic year. The school district later said the notice and opt-out system had become too burdensome.
A federal appeals court had ruled against the parents, saying it wasn’t yet clear how the books would be used in the classroom. The panel said that, as the litigation moved forward, families would need to prove that they or their children were being coerced into changing their religious views or practices.
The court has sided with religious rights in roughly a dozen cases during the past decade. Critics say the rulings have infringed on reproductive rights as well as protections for racial minorities and the LGBTQ community.
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