Supreme Court Decisions Affirm Rights of Parents

Parents have long held the primary responsibility for raising their children. But what happens when parents send their children to public schools? Do parents give the government near-total control over their children’s education and formation while their child is at school, or do parents retain the right to direct the religious upbringing of their children? In other words, who ultimately decides what’s best for children — their parents or the government? Recently, and building on robust historical precedent, the U.S. Supreme Court has answered resoundingly in favor of parents. Consider two examples.

MAHMOUD V. TAYLOR
In Mahmoud v. Taylor, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that parents have the right to opt their children out of storybooks that push one-sided ideology on gender and sexuality in violation of their religious beliefs.

Just outside our nation’s capital, one of the country’s largest and wealthiest school districts forced pre-K and elementary-aged children to read controversial books that promoted transgender ideology and encouraged gender transitioning—all without parental notice or opt-out. For example, one such book tasked 3- and 4-year-old children to search for images from a word list that included “intersex flag,” “[drag] queen,” “underwear,” and the name of a celebrated LGBTQ activist. The school board encouraged teachers to use this book and others to “disrupt students’ either/or thinking” about gender.

With help from the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, Christian, Jewish, and Muslim families sued the district to restore their parental religious liberty rights to opt their children out. And in a landmark decision, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled for the parents. As the Court explained, parents have the constitutional “right to direct the religious upbringing of their children,” and this right “would be an empty promise if it didn’t follow children into the public school classroom.” Because the district violated this fundamental parental religious liberty right, it had to pay the parents $1.5 million.

MIRABELLI V. BONTA
Just last month, in Mirabelli v. Bonta, the U.S. Supreme Court followed up on the Mahmoud decision, ruling that public schools cannot encourage and facilitate secret gender transitions by students.

The California Department of Education directed public schools in California to treat a student’s expressed transgender status at school as private information that could be withheld from parents. Schools were told to respect a student’s wishes about who could be informed — including whether parents would be told at all — and to avoid sharing that information except in rare situations. Because of this policy, California educators were lying to parents about whether their children were being treated as boys or girls during the school day.

A group of courageous parents challenged California’s policy in court. And in another monumental decision, the U.S. Supreme Court stopped California from facilitating secret gender transitions and protected parents’ right to know what is happening with their children at school. As the Court explained, “the intrusion on parents’ free exercise rights here — unconsented facilitation of a child’s gender transition—is greater than the introduction of LGBTQ storybooks we considered sufficient to” violate parents’ rights in Mahmoud. The Court thus ruled that schools cannot “cut out the primary protectors of children’s best interests: their parents.”

ENCOURAGING SIGNS
Not only have there been major victories in court, but public opinion has also shown emphatic support for religious pluralism and parental rights. Indeed, in the 2025 Religious Freedom Index — an annual survey published by my firm, the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty — 88% of Americans (both religious and non-religious) supported the freedom to practice one’s religious beliefs even if they are contrary to accepted majority practices. And on parental rights specifically, 62% agreed that parents have the right to raise their children in accordance with their religious beliefs, and that this right should extend into our public schools.

CONCLUSION
While these recent court decisions should be celebrated, the fight is not over. As we’ve seen time and time again, government officials who dislike religion will continue to try to find new ways to circumvent the Supreme Court’s decisions. It is thus essential that Christian parents not only stay updated on the court rulings in this area but also remain engaged in these issues. Because at the end of the day, the constitutional right of parents to direct the religious upbringing of their children only has meaning if courageous parents are aware of and continue to stand up for its protections.

Rich Osborne (Evangel University ’19) is Counsel at the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty. The views expressed here are his own and do not necessarily reflect those of Becket or its clients.