Supreme Court Rules Parents Entitled to Opt Children Out of LGBTQ Storybook Instruction, 6-3
On June 27, 2025, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that parents in Montgomery County, Maryland, are entitled to advance notice of, and to opt their children out of, elementary school storybook instruction involving sexuality and gender, and that the parents are entitled to a preliminary injunction. The county Board of Education at the center of the case is headquartered in Rockville, Montgomery County, Maryland.
During the 2022-2023 school year, the Montgomery County Board of Education introduced a set of 'LGBTQ+-inclusive' storybooks, with story lines focused on sexuality and gender, into the curriculum for kindergarten through fifth grade. The Board initially notified parents when the books would be taught and allowed children to be excused; less than a year later, it rescinded that policy, announcing that students and families could not opt out of the instruction and that no advance notice would be given.
A group of parents of different faiths and a parents' association sued, arguing that withdrawing notice and opt-outs burdened their right to raise their children in their own religious beliefs. The district court denied a preliminary injunction, and a divided panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit affirmed; the parents appealed to the Supreme Court.
Writing for the majority, Justice Samuel Alito said that introducing the storybooks while withholding notice and opt-outs burdens parents' religious exercise: the instruction poses 'a very real threat of undermining' the religious beliefs and practices that parents wish to instill in young children. The Court held that the parents are likely to succeed on their claim and are entitled to a preliminary injunction requiring notice and opt-outs while the case proceeds.
Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett joined the majority, and Thomas also wrote a concurrence. Justice Sonia Sotomayor dissented, joined by Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson, arguing that exposing students to ideas that differ from their parents' religious beliefs is not a burden on religious exercise, and warning that the ruling would create chaos for public school curricula.
The case is Mahmoud v. Taylor, No. 24-297, cited as 606 U.S. 522, argued on April 22, 2025. The judgment of the Fourth Circuit was reversed and the case returns to the lower courts for further proceedings.
(Source: Supreme Court of the United States)
Source: Supreme Court of the United States
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：位于华盛顿特区的美国最高法院大楼黄昏全景，本案判决书在此作出。Joe Ravi 摄，CC BY-SA 3.0，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Photo: The U.S. Supreme Court Building in Washington, D.C., at dusk, where this decision was issued. Photo by Joe Ravi, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
