{"id":615,"date":"2025-06-27T15:00:20","date_gmt":"2025-06-27T15:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/francereal.com\/?p=615"},"modified":"2025-06-30T03:45:37","modified_gmt":"2025-06-30T03:45:37","slug":"supreme-court-sides-with-parents-seeking-opt-outs-from-lgbtq-books-in-schools","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/francereal.com\/index.php\/2025\/06\/27\/supreme-court-sides-with-parents-seeking-opt-outs-from-lgbtq-books-in-schools\/","title":{"rendered":"Supreme Court sides with parents seeking opt-outs from LGBTQ books in schools\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Supreme Court in a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.supremecourt.gov\/opinions\/24pdf\/24-297_4f14.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">6-3 decision<\/a> along ideological lines Friday ruled in favor of parents in Montgomery County, Md., who sought to opt out their children from instruction that uses books with LGBTQ themes.<\/p>\n<p>It hands another win to religious rights advocates, who have regularly earned the backing of the high court\u2019s conservative majority in a series of high-profile cases.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Justice Samuel Alito, writing for the six Republican-appointed justices, found the lack of an opt-out option likely substantially burdens parents\u2019 constitutional right to freely exercise their religion.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The decision sends the case back to a lower court for a final decision on whether that requires the county to provide an opt-out. In the meantime, Alito said the school district must notify parents in advance and enable them to have their children removed from the instruction.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn the absence of an injunction, the parents will continue to be put to a choice: either risk their child\u2019s exposure to burdensome instruction, or pay substantial sums for alternative educational services. As we have explained, that choice unconstitutionally burdens the parents\u2019 religious exercise,\u201d Alito wrote.<\/p>\n<p>The court\u2019s three Democratic-appointed justices dissented.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe result will be chaos for this Nation\u2019s public schools,\u201d wrote Justice Sonia Sotomayor, joined by Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cRequiring schools to provide advance notice and the chance to opt out of every lesson plan or story time that might implicate a parent\u2019s religious beliefs will impose impossible administrative burdens on schools,\u201d Sotomayor continued. \u201cThe harm will not be borne by educators alone: Children will suffer too. Classroom disruptions and absences may well inflict long-lasting harm on students\u2019 learning and development.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\" \/>\n<div class=\"nlp-ignore-block article-content rich-text\">\n<aside class=\"promo-link\">\n\t<a href=\"https:\/\/nxslink.thehill.com\/join\/signup?ipid=promo-link-block1\" class=\"promo-link__link\" target=\"&quot;_blank&quot;\"><br \/>\n\t\tCheck out in-depth Supreme Court coverage in The Gavel, a The Hill newsletter published weekly.\t<\/a><br \/>\n<\/aside>\n<\/div>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\" \/>\n<p>Located just across the border from Washington, D.C., Montgomery County runs one of the nation\u2019s largest and most diverse public school systems.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>In fall 2022, the county began introducing books with gay and transgender characters in language arts curriculum in elementary schools. Initially, the county allowed opt-outs before rescinding the option as a flood of parents sought to do so on religious grounds.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>A coalition comprising an organization formed to fight the policy, and a group of Muslim, Roman Catholic and Ukrainian Orthodox parents sued.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The parents appealed to the Supreme Court after a federal district judge rejected their bid to require an opt-out option, and the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the ruling in a 2-1 vote.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The parents were represented by the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, <a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/regulation\/court-battles\/558925-supreme-court-sides-with-catholic-adoption-agency-that-turned-away\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">which regularly brings<\/a> religion cases <a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/regulation\/court-battles\/506366-supreme-court-upholds-trumps-expansion-of-obamacare-birth-control\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">before the high court<\/a>.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>They were backed by the Trump administration, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and other religious groups, more than five dozen Republican members of Congress, 26 Republican state attorneys general and various conservative legal groups.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Montgomery County was backed by another coalition of religious groups, Democratic attorneys general from Washington, D.C., and 18 states, the American Civil Liberties Union and LGBTQ advocacy groups.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The case is one of several at the Supreme Court this term implicating religious rights.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The court deadlocked 4-4 on the bid to create the nation\u2019s first publicly funded religious charter school, leaving intact a lower ruling blocking the Oklahoma school\u2019s contract.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>And the justices unanimously ruled Wisconsin must extend a religious tax exemption to the Catholic Charities Bureau, rejecting the state&#8217;s argument that the bureau did not qualify for the carve-out because its operations were not primarily religious.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Supreme Court in a 6-3 decision along ideological lines Friday ruled in favor of parents in Montgomery County, Md., who sought to opt out their children from instruction that uses books with LGBTQ themes. It hands another win to religious rights advocates, who have regularly earned the backing of the high court\u2019s conservative majority in a series of high-profile cases.&nbsp; Justice Samuel Alito, writing for the six Republican-appointed justices, found the lack of an opt-out option likely substantially burdens parents\u2019 constitutional right to freely exercise their religion.&nbsp; The decision sends the case back to a lower court for a final decision on whether that requires the county to provide an opt-out. In the meantime, Alito said the school district must notify parents in advance and enable them to have their children removed from the instruction.&nbsp; \u201cIn the absence of an injunction, the parents will continue to be put to a choice: either risk their child\u2019s exposure to burdensome instruction, or pay substantial sums for alternative educational services. As we have explained, that choice unconstitutionally burdens the parents\u2019 religious exercise,\u201d Alito wrote. The court\u2019s three Democratic-appointed justices dissented.&nbsp; \u201cThe result will be chaos for this Nation\u2019s public schools,\u201d wrote Justice Sonia Sotomayor, joined by Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson.&nbsp; \u201cRequiring schools to provide advance notice and the chance to opt out of every lesson plan or story time that might implicate a parent\u2019s religious beliefs will impose impossible administrative burdens on schools,\u201d Sotomayor continued. \u201cThe harm will not be borne by educators alone: Children will suffer too. Classroom disruptions and absences may well inflict long-lasting harm on students\u2019 learning and development.\u201d&nbsp; Check out in-depth Supreme Court coverage in The Gavel, a The Hill newsletter published weekly. Located just across the border from Washington, D.C., Montgomery County runs one of the nation\u2019s largest and most diverse public school systems.&nbsp;&nbsp; In fall 2022, the county began introducing books with gay and transgender characters in language arts curriculum in elementary schools. Initially, the county allowed opt-outs before rescinding the option as a flood of parents sought to do so on religious grounds.&nbsp; A coalition comprising an organization formed to fight the policy, and a group of Muslim, Roman Catholic and Ukrainian Orthodox parents sued.&nbsp; The parents appealed to the Supreme Court after a federal district judge rejected their bid to require an opt-out option, and the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the ruling in a 2-1 vote.&nbsp; The parents were represented by the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which regularly brings religion cases before the high court.&nbsp; They were backed by the Trump administration, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and other religious groups, more than five dozen Republican members of Congress, 26 Republican state attorneys general and various conservative legal groups.&nbsp; Montgomery County was backed by another coalition of religious groups, Democratic attorneys general from Washington, D.C., and 18 states, the American Civil Liberties Union and LGBTQ advocacy groups.&nbsp; The case is one of several at the Supreme Court this term implicating religious rights.&nbsp; The court deadlocked 4-4 on the bid to create the nation\u2019s first publicly funded religious charter school, leaving intact a lower ruling blocking the Oklahoma school\u2019s contract.&nbsp; And the justices unanimously ruled Wisconsin must extend a religious tax exemption to the Catholic Charities Bureau, rejecting the state&#8217;s argument that the bureau did not qualify for the carve-out because its operations were not primarily religious.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":617,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-615","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-design-development"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/francereal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/615","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/francereal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/francereal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/francereal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/francereal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=615"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/francereal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/615\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":616,"href":"https:\/\/francereal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/615\/revisions\/616"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/francereal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/617"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/francereal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=615"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/francereal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=615"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/francereal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=615"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}