In Mahmoud v. Taylor, a group of parents from Montgomery County, Maryland, challenged a local Board of Education’s policy. The policy mandated that elementary school students read books featuring LGBTQ+ themes without prior parental notification or the option to opt out. The parents, hailing from diverse religious backgrounds—Muslim, Catholic, and Orthodox—argued that this policy infringed upon their First Amendment rights by compelling their children to engage with material that contradicts their religious beliefs.
On May 15, 2024, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit upheld the school district’s policy, ruling that parents do not have a constitutional right to be notified about or exempt their children from LGBTQ+ themed instructional content. The parents, represented by the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, petitioned the United States Supreme Court to review the case. The Court reversed, stating, “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.”
Parents all across America now have greater rights to protect their children at school from books like those in Montgomery County, books intended to change the thinking of children as they were “designed to present certain values and beliefs as things to be celebrated, and certain contrary values and beliefs as things to be rejected.”
