The US Supreme Court on Friday ruled 6-3 in favour of parents demanding to opt their children out of lessons involving LGBTQ-themed books on religious grounds.
The justices were hearing an appeal from Christian and Muslim parents against a Maryland public school district for incorporating books aimed at eliminating discrimination and debating gender identification into kindergarten and elementary school curricula beginning in 2022.
The court found that the parents were likely to succeed in their claim that denying them the ability to withdraw their children from such instruction “unconstitutionally burdens” their right to exercise their religion.
“For many people of faith, there are few religious acts more important than the religious education of their children,” Justice Samuel Alito of the Supreme Court wrote in the majority opinion.
He added that the books in question “are designed to present certain values and beliefs as things to be celebrated and certain contrary values and beliefs as things to be rejected”, citing the normalisation and celebration of same-sex marriage as one such example.
In the dissent, Justice Sonia Sotomayor, joined by Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson, argued that public schools “offer to children of all faiths and backgrounds an education and an opportunity to practice living in our multicultural society”.
“That experience is critical to our nation’s civic vitality. Yet it will become a mere memory if children must be insulated from exposure to ideas and concepts that may conflict with their parents’ religious beliefs,” she warned.
President Donald Trump has focused on diversity, fairness, and inclusion measures throughout the federal government, with a particular emphasis on transgender concerns.
His Justice Department supported the parents in the case, describing the school district’s policy as “textbook interference with the free exercise of religion”.
