{"id":863206,"date":"2025-07-17T22:13:00","date_gmt":"2025-07-18T03:13:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/07\/17\/supreme-court-lets-parents-opt-kids-out-of-lgbtq-books-in-schools\/"},"modified":"2025-07-17T22:13:00","modified_gmt":"2025-07-18T03:13:00","slug":"supreme-court-lets-parents-opt-kids-out-of-lgbtq-books-in-schools","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/07\/17\/supreme-court-lets-parents-opt-kids-out-of-lgbtq-books-in-schools\/","title":{"rendered":"Supreme Court Lets Parents Opt Kids Out Of LGBTQ Books In Schools"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Topline<\/h2>\n

The Supreme Court cleared the way Friday for parents to broadly object to content in schools that they find objectionable on religious grounds, a ruling that centers on books with LGBTQ themes\u2014but critics warned could “radically change” what public schools teach.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Protesters in support of LGBTQ+ rights and against book bans demonstrate outside of the Supreme … More<\/span> Court Building on April 22 in Washington, DC.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/fbs-accordion>Getty Images<\/small><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Key Facts<\/h2>\n
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The Supreme Court ruled<\/a> 6-3 along party lines in Mahmoud v. Taylor, a dispute over the school district in Montgomery County, Maryland, and its decision not to let parents opt their children out of being exposed to children\u2019s books with LGBTQ themes, on the basis of it conflicting with their religion.<\/p>\n

The court granted an injunction that allows the parents to opt their children out of the books as the case moves forward, ruling the parents are likely to ultimately prevail in the case.<\/p>\n

The school district added several books with LGBTQ themes\u2014like about a child attending their uncle\u2019s same-sex wedding, and a dog getting lost at a Pride parade\u2014as part of a broader mission to diversify their instructional materials, and while the district initially let parents opt their children out of reading the materials, it later changed the policy after the slew of children opting out became \u201cunworkable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Parents\u2014who are Muslim, Roman Catholic and Ukrainian Orthodox\u2014sued the district, claiming the inability to opt their kids out of being exposed to the books violated their First Amendment right to freedom of religious expression and forced them to \u201csurrender their right to direct the religious upbringing of their children.\u201d<\/p>\n

Justice Samuel Alito, writing for the court, said the parents\u2019 religious liberties were likely violated, arguing the government \u201cburdens the religious exercise of parents when it requires them to submit their children to instruction that poses \u2018a very real threat of undermining\u2019 the religious beliefs and practices that the parents wish to instill,\u201d and governments \u201ccannot condition the benefit of free public education on parents\u2019 acceptance of such instruction.\u201d<\/p>\n

The court\u2019s liberal justices dissented from the decision, with Justice Sonia Sotomayor writing the court\u2019s ruling \u201cwill be chaos for public schools,\u201d and while public schools \u201coffer to children of all faiths and backgrounds an education and an opportunity to practice living in our multicultural society, that experience \u201cwill become a mere memory if children must be insulated from exposure to ideas and concepts that may conflict with their parents\u2019 religious beliefs.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Chief Critic<\/h2>\n

\u201cToday\u2019s ruling threatens the very essence of public education. The Court, in effect, constitutionalizes a parental veto power over curricular choices long left to the democratic process and local administrators,\u201d Sotomayor wrote in her dissent, which liberal Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson joined. \u201cThat decision guts our free exercise precedent and strikes at the core premise of public schools: that children may come together to learn not the teachings of a particular faith, but a range of concepts and views that reflect our entire society. Exposure to new ideas has always been a vital part of that project, until now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tangent<\/h2>\n

The dispute over Montgomery County\u2019s policies comes as a number of states have already passed laws regarding children\u2019s instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity, and parents\u2019 rights to object to it. Florida\u2019s Parental Rights in Education law\u2014known as \u201cDon\u2019t Say Gay\u201d\u2014was the most controversial when it was enacted<\/a> in 2022, but similar laws restricting such instruction or giving parents the right to opt out of it have also been enacted<\/a> in Arkansas, Montana and New Hampshire. Texas also allows parents to opt children out of any \u201cobjectionable\u201d content, while Arizona, Tennessee and Wyoming require parents to instead \u201copt-in\u201d to any instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity.<\/p>\n

Key Background<\/h2>\n

The parents suing Montgomery County went to the Supreme Court after both lower district and appeals court judges sided with the school district, shutting down the plaintiffs\u2019 efforts to opt their children out of the LGBTQ-themed books. The dispute over the district\u2019s policies comes as recent culture wars have caused upheaval when it comes to public education, as objections by parents and GOP lawmakers to instruction on topics like LGBTQ issues have sparked book bans and laws like Florida\u2019s \u201cDon\u2019t Say Gay.\u201d Advocacy group PEN America has tallied<\/a> nearly 16,000 book bans since 2021, a number the group says is higher than any period since McCarthyism in the 1950s. More than 10,000 book bans took place during the 2023-2024 school year alone, the highest year on record. The Trump administration, which filed a brief in the Montgomery County case urging justices to side with the parents, has also sought broad changes, seeking to dismantle the Department of Education as President Donald Trump has more broadly taken aim at LGBTQ rights and diversity, equity and inclusion policies. Some Democratic-led states have also passed measures in response to the new attacks on books and public school instruction, with states including California<\/a> and Illinois<\/a> passing laws that outlaw book bans.<\/p>\n

Further Reading<\/h2>\n

Supreme Court considers parents\u2019 efforts to exempt children from books with LGBTQ themes<\/a> (SCOTUSblog)<\/p>\n

Supreme Court\u2019s conservatives are poised to strike down elementary school policy denying opt-outs for LGBTQ+ books<\/a> (CNN)<\/p>\n

Authors in Supreme Court LGBTQ books case detail \u2018surreal\u2019 fight<\/a> (The Hill)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Alison Durkee
Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Topline The Supreme Court cleared the way Friday for parents to broadly object to content in schools that they find objectionable on religious grounds, a ruling that centers on books with LGBTQ themes\u2014but critics warned could “radically change” what public schools teach. Protesters in support of LGBTQ+ rights and against book bans demonstrate outside of<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":863207,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2047,1829],"tags":[5047,7078],"class_list":{"0":"post-863206","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-court","8":"category-supreme","9":"tag-court","10":"tag-supreme"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/863206","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=863206"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/863206\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/863207"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=863206"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=863206"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=863206"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}