US Supreme Court hears arguments on viability of religious opt-outs from LGBTQ+ curriculum in public schools – JURIST
The US Supreme Court on Tuesday heard oral arguments in the Mahmoud v. Taylor case concerning the viability of religious opt-outs from LGBTQ+ curriculum in public schools.
In the brief for the petitioners, the parents argue that “gender and sexuality are topics of enormous religious importance” and that “decisions related to these topics can have life-changing and lifelong impacts.” The brief for the respondents notes that without proof of coercion, “direct or indirect, to believe or act contrary to one’s religious views,” there is no cognizable burden on religious exercise.
The majority conservative Supreme Court seemed to lean in favor of the parents, with Justice Kavanaugh emphasizing that the parents are not “seeking to prohibit instruction in the classroom” but are just “seeking not to be forced to participate in that instruction.” Moreover, Justice Barrett pointed out that the books constitute a “presentation of the idea as fact.” To her, the books are not mere exposures to pictures but are exposures to a “world view” and to “ideas” regarding non-binary identities, pronouns, and same-sex marriage. Justice Alito, questioning the respondents, asked whether “the school can teach students certain moral principles that are highly objectionable to parents.”
The court’s three liberal justices espoused concerns regarding where the line, if any, was to be drawn with opt-outs on religious grounds in public schools. For instance, Justice Sotomayor questioned what more could be found to be “coercive” since parents have found a whole range of topics offensive to their religions, including divorce, immodest dress, interfaith marriage, evolution, and women working outside the home. Similarly, Justice Kagan worried that parents would be the ones who “get to decide, assuming their beliefs are sincere,” and that they could opt their children out of any instruction that they “deem harmful.”
In 2022, Montgomery County Public Schools in Maryland introduced LGBTQ+ inclusive books into its school curriculum for pre-K through fifth graders. A group of Muslim, Roman Catholic, and Ukrainian Orthodox parents sued, contending that the introduction of the books, absent notice or an opportunity to opt their children out, burdened their religious exercise, specifically their decisions on how to raise their children in accordance with their beliefs regarding faith, gender, sexuality, and marriage. The Supreme Court agreed to hear the case following the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals’s ruling that parents failed to show that the lack of opt-outs coerced them or their children into violating their religious beliefs.
The court is expected to render its decision by the end of June.
