Supreme Court sides with parents who want to opt kids out of LGBT school books - Washington Examiner
The Supreme Court sided on Friday with a group of Maryland parents who argued that preventing them from opting their children out of LGBT curriculum infringed on their religious freedom rights.
The 6-3 ruling from the high court marked the latest win for religious liberty advocates handed down by the justices this term. Justice Samuel Alito authored the majority opinion.
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The Friday majority opinion is a key victory for religious and parental rights in public schools, holding with recent Supreme Court decisions affirming religious liberty.
The lawsuit stemmed from Montgomery County Public Schools’s 2023 decision to bar religious opt-outs for LGBT books, such as Uncle Bobby’s Wedding, which portrays a same-sex marriage, and Intersection Allies, which looks at nonbinary gender identities. The group of parents alleged the school board’s decision not to notify parents that their children would be studying the controversial books and not to allow students to sit out of the LGBT-themed story time violated their Constitutional rights.
During oral arguments for the case held on April 22, a majority of the justices appeared ready to side with parents over the school district in the dispute.
Lawyers for the parents argued the school board violated their First Amendment rights when it removed their ability to opt their children out of studying LGBT books. The school board’s lawyers argued that opening the door to sweeping opt-outs for curriculum that parents disagree with would “conscript courts into the role of playing school board.”
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The decision will have sweeping implications for parents’ ability to pull their children out of controversial lessons at public schools for religious reasons.
This is a breaking story and will be updated.