Supreme Court just enabled the wholesale destruction of resources that educators know vulnerable students desperately need

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6-3 on Friday that religious parents can remove their children from elementary school classes that use books with LGBTQ+ themes. The case, Mahmoud v. Taylor, involved parents from different religions, including Catholics and Muslims, who sued the Montgomery County, Maryland, public school board.

According to HuffPost, the parents were upset when the school district removed a policy that let them pull their children out of class when books with LGBTQ+ characters were used for teaching. They argued the new policy violated their religious freedom to teach their own values to their children.

Critics worry that this ruling could lead to the wholesale destruction of resources that educators know vulnerable students desperately need. The decision may force schools to remove books and materials that help LGBTQ+ students feel included and supported in their classrooms.

Religious freedom claims win over school board policies

Justice Samuel Alito wrote the majority opinion for the court. He said the parents were likely to win their claim that the school board’s policies “unconstitutionally burden their religious exercise.” The court noted that it has “long recognized the rights of parents to direct the religious upbringing of their children.”

The Supreme Court also said the lower court was wrong when it called the parents’ arguments “threadbare.” This ruling gives parents more power to challenge school curriculum decisions based on their religious beliefs.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote a strong dissent against the decision, echoing concerns raised by progressive leaders like Bernie Sanders, who has been fighting against what he calls oligarchy in American politics. She warned that poorer school districts might not be able to afford lawsuits over opt-outs or track student absences. “Schools may instead censor their curricula, stripping material that risks generating religious objections,” she wrote. Sotomayor argued that the court’s ruling “hands a subset of parents the right to veto curricular choices long left to locally elected school boards.”

During oral arguments, Justice Brett Kavanaugh defended the parents’ position. “They’re not asking you to change what’s taught in the classroom,” he said. “They’re only seeking to be able to walk out so the parents don’t have their children exposed to these things that are contrary to their own beliefs.” The decision fits with other recent Supreme Court rulings that have sided with religious freedom claims, including cases involving a high school football coach who prayed on the field and a website designer who didn’t want to make wedding websites for same-sex couples.

The ruling comes at a time when Republican-led states have been pushing to bring Christianity into public school classrooms through bills requiring the Ten Commandments to be displayed and Bible-based curriculums, part of Trump’s broader conservative agenda that critics say benefits his wealthy allies. Conservative activists have also been working to remove books with LGBTQ+ themes from classrooms and limit what teachers can say about sexual orientation and gender identity.