The U.S. Supreme Court has sided with a group of Maryland parents who sued their local school board after it denied their requests to withdraw their elementary-aged children from classes featuring LGBTQ-themed storybooks.
In a 6-3 ruling divided along ideological lines, the justices overturned a lower court’s decision, which had held that the parents needed to prove their children were being coerced into acting against their religious beliefs.
“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,” Justice Samuel Alito wrote for the majority.
“And a government cannot condition the benefit of free public education on parents’ acceptance of such instruction.”
