Mahmoud v. Taylor involves Christian, Jewish, and Muslim parents in Montgomery County. At issue is whether public schools violate parents' First Amendment rights when they compel elementary-aged students to participate in instruction on gender and sexuality, against their parents' religious convictions.
As AFN has reported, the parents lost at the federal district and appeals court levels, but their attorneys at Becket, which "exists to defend the free exercise of all faiths," are optimistic the U.S. Supreme Court will turn things around.
"The grant for review is a very positive sign for the parents that the Supreme Court thinks something went wrong below and they want to reverse it," says attorney William Haun.
He explains that the Supreme Court gets roughly 9,000 certiorari petitions, or requests for review, every single year, but they only take 80 or fewer cases.
"I don't think the Supreme Court took this case just to give two thumbs up," Haun tells AFN. "I think the Supreme Court took this case to vindicate the First Amendment."
Despite the nationwide consensus that allows opt outs for parents when it comes to sex education for their children, Montgomery County has skirted that simply by calling this language arts instruction.
"If the principle that gets adopted in this case is that all public schools have to do to get around the authority of parents is to take sex ed and put it in English class, that is a national problem," the attorney warns. "We will see jurisdictions do this over and over again."
The Supreme Court will likely hear oral arguments in Mahmoud v. Taylor later this spring, and a decision is expected before the justices recess for the summer.
