The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that parents have the right to opt their children out of a Maryland school district's LGBT-themed curriculum materials due to religious objections, reversing an appeals court decision.
In a 6-3 decision in Mahmoud, Tamer, et al. v. Taylor, Thomas W., et al., the court determined that Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) cannot compel children to be exposed to LGBT-themed books in the curriculum.
The court's opinion was written by Justice Samuel Alito, with Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Amy Coney Barrett, Brett Kavanaugh, Neil Gorsuch, and Clarence Thomas joining him.
Justice Alito wrote, “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.”
Alito added, “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.”
The court granted the parents a preliminary injunction against the inclusion of LGBT-themed books in the curriculum on religious grounds.
Alito continued, “The practice of educating one’s children in one’s religious beliefs, like all religious acts and practices, receives a generous measure of protection from our Constitution,” emphasizing that “this is not merely a right to teach religion in the confines of one’s own home. Rather, it extends to the choices that parents wish to make for their children outside the home.”
Justice Sonia Sotomayor authored a dissenting opinion, joined by Justices Ketanji Brown Jackson and Elena Kagan, arguing that “invents a constitutional right to avoid exposure to ‘subtle’ themes’ contrary to the religious principles’ that parents wish to instill in their children.”
Justice Sotomayor elaborated, “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.”
“Requiring schools to provide advance notice and the chance to opt out of every lesson plan or story time that might implicate a parent’s religious beliefs will impose impossible administrative burdens on schools. The harm will not be borne by educators alone: Children will suffer too.”
The controversy surrounding the curriculum began in October 2022 when the Montgomery County Board of Education approved LGBT-themed books for inclusion in the schools’ English language arts curricula. In 2023, after large protests tied to parents’ religious beliefs—many of whom were Christian and Muslim—parents filed a lawsuit claiming that officials violated their sincerely held beliefs.
U.S. District Judge Deborah Boardman, a Biden appointee, rejected a motion for a preliminary injunction in August 2023, stating that “the parents failed to show that the ‘use of the storybooks crosses the line from permissible influence to potentially impermissible indoctrination.’”
A three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals supported Judge Boardman’s ruling in a 2-1 decision in May of last year. Subsequently, in January 2025, the Supreme Court agreed without comment to review the case by issuing a miscellaneous orders list.
