Dozens of congressional Republicans will file an amicus brief to the Supreme Court Tuesday morning in support of parents’ constitutional rights to opt their children out of left-wing gender ideology and sexuality content in schools.
The 66 lawmakers signed on to an amicus brief in support of parents’ legal challenge to a Maryland school district policy effectively forcing pre-kindergarten to middle school students to participate in educational instruction involving storybooks with gender ideology and sexuality content. The lawmakers argue that the school district’s policy that disregards parents’ objections to their children being exposed to left-wing gender and sexuality material in the classroom violates the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment, according to background on the amicus brief obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation.
Republican Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy, chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, and Republican Alabama Rep. Robert Aderholt, chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services and Education, led congressional Republicans in filing the amicus brief.
The Supreme Court agreed in January to hear parents’ challenge to a Maryland school district decision to rescind a parental notification policy that allowed parents the right to opt their children out of educational instruction related to gender ideology and sexuality material.
The amicus brief argues that the school board “lacks a compelling governmental justification to violate the parents’ First Amendment religious freedom rights,” according to background on the brief shared with the DCNF.
“[M]ay the state condition a child’s participation in public schooling on the child’s parents’ ceding to the government the right to indoctrinate the child on contested moral and religious issues — even when such teaching violates the parents’ moral and religious commitments?,” the lawmakers questioned in the brief. “The answer to both questions — as Congress has long recognized in its legislation — is no.”
“Indeed, federal law has consistently protected parental rights in the educational arena,” the lawmakers continued. “What the parents in this case seek for free exercise reasons is very much in keeping with this congressional tradition.”
In November 2022, the Montgomery County, Maryland school board introduced more than 20 books to classrooms as young as pre-kindergarten featuring stories on “gender transitions, Pride parades and same-sex playground romance,” according to the parents’ petition. The school board initially gave notice to parents about the educational instruction and allowed them to opt their children out of lessons featuring gender ideology and sexuality content, citing district policy on religious accommodation.
One of the books, “Pride Puppy,” was intended for kids age three and four and encouraged them to find “drag queen,” “underwear” and “leather” in a word list, according to the DCNF’s previous reporting.
The group of Christian and Muslim parents filed their lawsuit in May 2023 after the district rescinded a notice and opt out policy regarding educational instruction pertaining to gender ideology and sexuality content.
A district court judge and the Fourth Circuit of Appeals ruled against the parents.
“Requiring children to be taught gender and sexuality subject matter that violates their family’s religious beliefs is unconstitutional,” Cassidy told the DCNF. “Parents have the right to know what their child is learning in school. I am proud to co-lead this amicus brief defending parents’ constitutional right to raise their child in the manner they choose.”
“Parents have a fundamental right to guide their children’s education and upbringing, especially when it involves sensitive topics that intersect with their deeply held beliefs,” Aderholt told the DCNF. “The government should never force children to be exposed to materials that contradict their family’s values without parental knowledge or consent. I stand with parents in their fight to ensure they have a say in what their children are taught in the classroom.”
Seventeen GOP senators and 46 House Republicans, including House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, signed onto the amicus brief.
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