For Immedite release:
Supreme Court Affirms Right of Parents to Opt Out Children from LGBTQ+ Instruction that Undermines Religious Beliefs

National Center for Law & Policy applauds the decision that protects

children and parents from controversial ideologies

Washington D.C.—Today, the U.S. Supreme Court of the United States delivered a landmark 6-3 decision in Mahmoud v. Taylor, affirming the right of parents to be notified and opt their children out of public-school instruction that conflicts with their religious beliefs. In its opinion granting the parents their requested injunction, the court made clear that “the Board’s introduction of the ‘LGBTQ+-inclusive’ storybooks – combined with its decision to withhold notice to parents and to forbid opt outs – substantially interferes with the religious development of their children.”

Justice Samuel Alito, wrote for the majority:

"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. Wisconsin v. Yoder, 406 U. S. 205, 218 (1972). And a government cannot condition the benefit of free public education on parents’ acceptance of such instruction. Based on these principles, we conclude that the parents are likely to succeed in their challenge to the Board’s policies."

“A classroom environment that is welcoming to all students,” the court noted, “is something to be commended, but such an environment cannot be achieved through hostility toward the religious beliefs of students and their parents.” The court declared that it “is both insulting and legally unsound to tell parents that they must abstain from public education in order to raise their children in their religious faiths, when alternatives can be prohibitively expensive and they already contribute to financing the public schools.”

The National Center for Law & Policy, along with attorneys with First Liberty Institute, recently obtained a preliminary injunction order in S.E. v. Grey, a case challenging the Encinitas Union School District’s refusal to notify parents and allow them to opt out from instruction involving forcing fifth grade Christian students to mentor kindergarten students in gender identity ideology. In that case, a preliminary injunction was granted requiring EUSD to notify parents and allow them to opt out whenever gender ideology is promoted in its mentor program.

“We are grateful for this monumental victory, affirming parental right and religious freedom,” stated the NCLP president, Dean Broyles. “Parents have the fundamental right to direct the care and education of their children, including religious instruction,” continued Broyles. “This landmark decision helps to shift the balance of power away from the state and back to families and faith communities, where it belongs. Public schools will no longer be able to secretly indoctrinate children with controversial sexual ideologies that undermine families and faith communities. This case has far-reaching implications and may effectively gut LGBTQ+ instruction in public education, which now pervades so much of the curriculum in overreaching states like California. It should also stop the abusive practice in California public schools and elsewhere of secretly gender transitioning children behind their parents' backs.”