The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday refused to hear a petition backed by a conservative Christian legal group to challenge a Maryland school district’s policy prohibiting informing parents if their children identify as transgender or transgender. gender non-conforming.
The justices rejected an appeal by three parents whose children attended public schools in the Washington suburb of Montgomery County against a lower court’s ruling that they lacked the legal standing to challenge the policy. . The plaintiffs are represented by the National Legal Foundation, based in Virginia.
The issue of transgender rights has become a flashpoint in America’s culture wars. In this context, conservative litigants and parent groups have filed lawsuits in various U.S. jurisdictions to challenge school policies that seek to respect transgender students’ requests not to “out” them to their parents without their consent.
The policy in question, adopted by the Montgomery County School Board for the 2020-2021 school year, allowed schools to develop gender support plans for students to ensure they “feel comfortable expressing their gender identity.
The policy directs school staff to help transgender and gender nonconforming students create a plan that takes into account their preferred pronouns, names and toilets, and prohibits staff from informing parents of these plans without the consent of the student. ‘pupil.
The plaintiffs — a mother and two fathers — filed a lawsuit in 2020, arguing that the district’s policy violated their due process rights under the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution to direct custody of their children.
U.S. District Judge Paul Grimm dismissed the case in 2022, and a three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, based in Richmond, Virginia, upheld the dismissal by a 2-1 vote in 2023 , finding that even if the parents raised “compelling” arguments, they did not have standing to assert their claims.
Judge A. Marvin Quattlebaum, writing for the 4th Circuit majority, opens in a new tab
, cited the absence of allegations that these parents’ children were transgender; Do you have gender identification issues? or “gender support plans” that addressed, among other things, the names, pronouns and toilets they would use.
Quattlebaum, appointed by former Republican President Donald Trump, said that meant the plaintiffs failed to present facts showing that the schools had information about their children that could be withheld from them.
This flaw made their opposition a mere “political disagreement,” Quattlebaum said.
“And policy disagreements should be addressed to elected policymakers at the ballot box, not to unelected judges in the courthouse,” Quattlebaum wrote.
The parents, in appealing, had argued that the 4th Circuit’s decision misinterpreted U.S. Supreme Court precedent on legal standing and was at odds with rulings from other federal appeals courts. The parents also urged judges to not only decide whether they had standing to sue, but also whether the school’s policy violated their basic parental rights, saying “this problem is not going to go away.”
“Moreover, this case presents a substantive issue that troubles parents and school districts from Maine to California,” they wrote in their petition.
to the judges. “It is important for parents, their children and public schools that this issue is addressed and resolved now. »
The school district said its policy aims to ensure its schools provide a safe and welcoming environment where all students feel accepted. Although the policy encourages parental involvement as much as possible, the district said, it reflects the reality that in some cases students may not openly express their gender identity at home out of concern for safety or privacy. acceptance.
News Source : www.nbcnews.com
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