At the Center for American Liberty, we’re continuing our fight to protect parental rights—and we’ve taken an important new step. CAL has urged the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals to consider our pivotal parental rights case, Doe v. Weiser, in light of the Supreme Court’s recent landmark decision in Mahmoud v. Taylor.
In Doe v. Weiser, we represent Colorado parents challenging school policies that secretly enable gender transitions without parental knowledge or consent. The Supreme Court’s Mahmoud decision, though centered on the Free Exercise Clause, strongly reinforces our arguments.
Here’s why Mahmoud matters:
- First, Mahmoud underscores that parents have a fundamental constitutional right to direct the upbringing of their children. Citing decades of established law dating back to Pierce v. Society of Sisters (1925), the Supreme Court reiterated that parents have authority over significant choices for their children, which we contend includes decisions about social transitions at school.
- Second, Mahmoud clarifies that parental rights do not disappear at the schoolhouse gate. The Supreme Court explicitly stated that parents’ constitutional rights follow their children into public schools. Even though some parents have the means to send their children to private school or homeschool them, the state cannot enact policies that disregard or override those rights simply because children attend public school.
- Third, Mahmoud directly rejects the notion that only coercive state action violates parental rights. Rather, the Constitution also protects parents against even subtle interference with their decision-making authority. We contend that policies allowing schools to secretly transition students fall into this prohibited category, because they shift critical decision-making power away from parents and into the hands of school officials.
- Finally, Mahmoud confirms that parents have standing to challenge these policies, recognizing that impressionable children are subject to unique pressures in the public school environment.
Josh Dixon, CAL’s Director of Litigation, highlighted this development: “Mahmoud is a game-changer. It reinforces our core argument: Colorado schools are violating parents’ fundamental constitutional rights by secretly facilitating gender transitions behind parents’ backs. The Tenth Circuit now has even clearer guidance from the Supreme Court that these harmful policies cannot stand.”
Stay connected as we continue this critical fight to protect parental rights.