Over 50 Republican lawmakers have signed onto an amicus brief to the U.S. Supreme Court supporting Maryland parents in their fight to opt out of left-wing gender ideology and sexually explicit content in public schools, the Daily Caller reported on Tuesday.
The brief, to be filed later on Tuesday, was signed by 17 Republican senators and 46 GOP representatives and argues that the local school board "lacks a compelling governmental justification to violate the parents’ First Amendment religious freedom rights."
The filing was led by Bill Cassidy, R-La., chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, and Rep. Robert Aderholt, R-Ala., chair of the House Appropriations subcommittee: Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies.
In January, the Supreme Court agreed to hear a bid by Christian and Muslim parents in Maryland seeking to exercise their Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment by pulling their children out of instruction that features LGBTQ and sexual content antithetical to their religious teachings. A district court judge from the Fourth Circuit of Appeals rejected a request for injunction by the parents that would have ordered the Montgomery County School District to permit the children to opt out when the objectionable material is read.
The religious parent's objections began in November 2022 when the Montgomery School Board accepted more than 20 books in pre-K classrooms that highlighted topics such as "gender transitions, Pride parades, and same-sex playground romance," according to the parents’ court filing.
One of the books called out in the parent’s petition called "Puppy Pride" is targeted toward children under 5 years old and had the students find the phrases "drag queen," "underwear" and "leather," according to a previous report by the outlet.
"May the state condition a child’s participation in public schooling on the child’s parents’ ceding to the government the right to indoctrinate the child on contested moral and religious issues — even when such teaching violates the parents’ moral and religious commitments?" the lawmakers questioned in the brief. "The answer to both questions — as Congress has long recognized in its legislation — is no."
Montgomery County said in its filings that the books in question were not part of the enforced curriculum but simply available as reading materials for lower grade levels.
"Requiring children to be taught gender and sexuality subject matter that violates their family’s religious beliefs is unconstitutional," Cassidy told the outlet. "Parents have the right to know what their child is learning in school. I am proud to co-lead this amicus brief defending parents’ constitutional right to raise their child in the manner they choose."
James Morley III ✉
James Morley III is a writer with more than two decades of experience in entertainment, travel, technology, and science and nature.
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