supreme court rule

WASHINGTON  — The Supreme Court ruled Friday that parents have a right to opt their schoolchildren out of classes and lessons that offend their religious beliefs.

The 6-3 ruling will have an impact nationwide because it empowers parents who object to books or lessons at school.

“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,” said Justice Samuel A. Alito, speaking for the conservative majority.

Parents in Montgomery County, Md., sued over new LGBTQ+ storybooks that were used in kindergarten and elementary school classes.

This clash between progressive educators and religiously conservative parents moved quickly to the Supreme Court after judges refused to intervene.

Alito said the parents were entitled to a preliminary injunction that would require the schools to “notify them in advance” when one of the disputed storybooks would be used in their child’s class.

In ruling for the parents, the court did not say parents have a right to change the lessons and books that were used at school. They could, however, choose to have their children temporarily removed from those classes.

The court’s three liberals dissented.

“Today’s ruling ushers in … new reality, “ Justice Sonia Sotomayor said. “Casting aside long-standing precedent, the Court invents a constitutional right to avoid exposure to subtle themes contrary to the religious principles that parents wish to instill in their children. Given the great diversity of religious beliefs in this country, countless interactions that occur every day in public schools might expose children to messages that conflict with a parent’s religious beliefs. The result will be chaos for this Nation’s public schools.”

Eric Baxter, senior counsel at Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, called the decision “a historic victory for parental rights in Maryland and across America. Kids shouldn’t be forced into conversations about drag queens, Pride parades, or gender transitions without their parents’ permission.”

He appealed the case to the Supreme Court last fall.

“Today, the Court restored common sense and made clear that parents — not government —have the final say in how their children are raised,” he said.

Civil rights advocates condemned the ruling.

“All students deserve to feel safe and welcome in their classrooms. Educators should prepare them for the world we live in and promote curiosity, acceptance, and respect for all people. Yet today’s decision by six justices encourages open discrimination toward LGBTQ+ children and families and favors ignorance and censorship over inclusion,” said Liz King, director for education equity at the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights.

Nearly every state, including Maryland and California, has a law that allows parents to opt out their children from sex education classes.

But Montgomery County officials said this state rule applied to older students and to sex education, but not to reading lessons for elementary school children.

When the new LGBTQ+ storybooks were introduced in the fall of 2022, parents were told their young children could be removed from those lessons. But when “unsustainably high numbers” of children were absent, the school board revoked the opt-out rule.

In reaction, a group of Muslim, Catholic and Ukrainian Orthodox parents filed a suit in federal court, seeking an order that would allow their children to be removed from class during the reading lessons.

A federal judge and the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals refused to intervene.

Those judges said the “free exercise” of religion under the 1st Amendment protects people from being forced to change their conduct or their beliefs but it does not shield people from views they oppose.

Lawyers for the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty appealed to the Supreme Court.

They said the school board had “mandated new ‘inclusive’ storybooks that celebrate gender transitions, explore Pride parades and introduce same-sex romance between young children.”

At first, parents had been promised they would be notified and could opt their children out when the storybooks were read, they said. But that promise was revoked.

“If parents did not like what was taught to their elementary school kids, their only choice was to send them to private school or to home school,” they said.

WASHINGTON — Citing the explosion of online porn, the Supreme Court ruled Friday that states may enforce age verification laws in hopes of screening out children and young teens.

By a 6-3 vote, the justices rejected a free-speech claim from the adult entertainment industry.

“The power to require age verification is within a State’s authority to prevent children from accessing sexually explicit content,” said Justice Clarence Thomas for the court.

The free-speech advocates who challenged the law said it would infringe the rights of adults because they could be forced to disclose their identity.

But the court disagreed.

The Texas law “advances the State’s important interest in shielding children from sexually explicit content. And, it is appropriately tailored because it permits users to verify their ages through the established methods of providing government-issued identification and sharing transactional data,” Thomas said.

The court’s three liberals dissented.

Under the Texas law, a website must use “reasonable age verification methods” to confirm visitors are at least 18 years old if more than one-third of its content is “sexual material harmful to minors.”
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More than 21 other Republican-led states have adopted similar laws in recent years.

In defense of the Texas law, Atty. Gen. Ken Paxton said that prior to the internet, the court had upheld laws that required bookstores or magazine stands to “check the age of their customers before selling them pornography.”

He argued that moving their business online should not give pornographers a 1st Amendment right “to provide access to nearly inexhaustible amounts of obscenity to any child with a smartphone.”

State officials also said porn online is increasingly violent and degrading.

“The average child is exposed to internet pornography while still in elementary school,” wrote state attorneys for Ohio and Indiana. “Pornography websites receive more traffic in the U.S. than social media platforms Instagram, TikTok, Netflix, and Pinterest combined.”

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court has limited the power of federal district judges to hand down orders that apply nationwide.

By 6-3 vote, the justices said Friday that judges may not issue orders that apply to people beyond those who sued.

“Federal courts do not exercise general oversight of the Executive Branch,” said Justice Amy Coney Barrett. And while judges can give full relief to plaintiffs, including groups of people, their injunctions should not be “broader than necessary” to shield those people.

The court’s three liberals dissented.

In her dissent, Justice Sonia Sotomayor said the Trump administration is trying to defend a blatantly unconstitutional order repealing birthright citizenship.

“The gamesmanship in this request is apparent and the Government makes no attempt to hide it. Yet, shamefully, this Court plays along,” she said.

The procedural ruling is a victory for President Trump and a setback for advocates who seek to block his executive orders.

It prevents a single district judge in Boston or San Francisco from blocking Trump’s policies from taking effect nationwide.

However, it does not decide on the constitutionality of Trump’s plan to limit birthright citizenship.

Three federal district judges—in Maryland, Massachusetts and Washington—issued nationwide orders declaring Trump’s plan unconstitutional.

The 14th Amendment, adopted in 1868, says “All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.”

On his first day in office, Trump issued an executive order disagreeing with the traditional understanding and asserting the Constitution does not “extend citizenship universally to everyone born within the United States.”

He said it would be U.S. policy to not recognize citizenship for newborns if the child’s mother or father was “not a United States citizen or lawful permanent resident at the time of said person’s birth.”

But in quick succession, judges declared Trump’s order may not be enforced across the nation. They said his proposed restrictions violated the federal law and Supreme Court precedent as well as the plain words of the 14th Amendment.

Rather than challenge those rulings directly, Trump’s lawyers sent an emergency appeal to the Supreme Court with “a modest request.”

Rather than rule on birthright citizenship, they urged the justices to rein in the practice of district judges handing down nationwide orders.

They have “reached epidemic proportions since the start of the current administration,” they said.