Below is my column in The Hill on the ruling in Mahmoud v. Taylor in favor of parents who want to withdraw their children from LGBTQ lessons in public schools. I agreed with the majority, but it was Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s dissent (joined by Justices Kagan and Jackson) that was the most striking in its apocalyptic take on allowing parents to remove their children from these classes. Despite the fact that various opt-outs have been allowed for parents, this one is deemed a threat to the very essence of public education.
Here is the column:
The end is nigh.
That seems to be the message this week from the three liberal justices at the Supreme Court when faced with the nightmarish prospect of parents being able to remove their young children from mandatory classes on gay, lesbian and transgender material.
The decision in Mahmoud v. Taylor was a roaring victory for parents in public schools. The Montgomery County, Md. school system fought to require the reading of 13 “LGBTQ+-inclusive” texts in the English and Language Arts curriculum for kids from pre-K through 12th grade. That covers children just 5-11 years old.
The children are required to read or listen to stories like “Prince & Knight” about two male knights who marry each other, and “Love Violet” about two young girls falling in love. Another, “Born Ready: The True Story of a Boy Named Penelope,” discusses a biological girl who begins a transition to being a boy.
Teachers were informed that this was mandatory reading, which must be assigned, and that families would not be allowed to opt out. The guidelines for teachers made clear that students had to be corrected if they expressed errant or opposing views of gender. If a child questions how someone born a boy could become a girl, teachers were encouraged to correct the child and declare, “That comment is hurtful!”
Even if a student merely asks, “What’s transgender?,” teachers are expected to say, “When we’re born, people make a guess about our gender and label us ‘boy’ or ‘girl’ based on our body parts. Sometimes they’re right and sometimes they’re wrong.”
Teachers were specifically told to “[d]isrupt” thinking or values opposing transgender views.
Many families sought to opt out of these lessons. The school allows for such opt-outs for a variety of reasons, but the Board ruled out withdrawals for these lessons. Ironically, it noted that so many families were upset and objecting that it would be burdensome to allow so many kids to withdraw.
The Montgomery County school system is one of the most diverse in the nation. And Christian, Muslim, and other families objected to the mandatory program as undermining their religious and moral values.
The majority on the Supreme Court ruled that, as with other opt-outs, Montgomery County must allow parents to withdraw their children from these lessons. The response from liberal groups was outrage. Liberal sites declared “another victory for right-wing culture warriors,” even though the public overwhelmingly supported these parents.
However, the most overwrought language came not from liberal advocates but liberal justices.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor declared that there “will be chaos for this nation’s public schools” and both education and children will “suffer” if parents are allowed to opt their children out of these lessons. She also worried about the “chilling effect” of the ruling, which would make schools more hesitant to offer such classes in the future. It was a particularly curious concern, since parents would like teachers to focus more on core subjects and show greater restraint in pursuing social agendas.
The majority pushed back against “the deliberately blinkered view” of the three liberal justices on dismissing the objections of so many families to these lessons. Nevertheless, even though such material was only recently added and made mandatory, the liberal justices declared that “the damage to America’s public education system will be profound” and “threatens the very essence of public education.”
The truth is that this decision could actually save public education in the U.S.
Previously, during oral argument, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson had shocked many when she dismissed the objections of parents, stating that they could simply remove their children from public schools. It was a callous response to many families who do not have the means to pay for private or parochial schools.
Yet, it is a view previously expressed by many Democratic politicians and school officials. State Rep. Lee Snodgrass (D-Wis.) once insisted: “If parents want to ‘have a say’ in their child’s education, they should homeschool or pay for private school tuition out of their family budget.”
Iowa school board member Rachel Wall said: “The purpose of a public ed is to not teach kids what the parents want. It is to teach them what society needs them to know. The client is not the parent, but the community.”
These parents still harbor the apparently misguided notion that these remain their children.
Today, many are indeed following Jackson’s advice and leaving public schools. The opposition of public-sector unions and many Democratic politicians to school vouchers is precisely because families are fleeing the failing public school systems. Once they are no longer captive to the system, they opt for private schools that offer a greater focus on basic educational subjects and less emphasis on social activism.
Our public schools are imploding. Some are lowering standards to achieve “equity” and graduating students without proficiency skills. Families are objecting to the priority given to political and social agendas to make their kids better people when they lack math, science, and other skills needed to compete in an increasingly competitive marketplace.
This decision may well save public schools from themselves by encouraging a return to core educational priorities.
It may offer some cover for more moderate school officials to push back against such demands for mandatory readings to young children.
What the majority calls “the deliberately blinkered view” of the dissent could just as well describe the delusional position of public school boards and unions. Schools are facing rising debt and severe declines in enrollment, yet unions in states like Illinois are demanding even more staff increases and larger expenditures.
The liberal justices are right about one thing: This is a fight over “the essence of public education.” However, it is the parents, not the educators (or these justices) who are trying to restore public education to meet the demands for a diverse nation.
Jonathan Turley is the Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law at George Washington University and the best-selling author of “The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage.”
One quick clarification: at least based on my own experience as a student, pre-K through 12th grade would be more like ages 4-17. And what if the public school system in a particular district had a nursery school or similar-named program for even younger chldren?
What gives these lying robed leftists – who rule by ideology and not the Constitution – the right to force gay ideology on our public schools!!?? The left wing is by far the biggest threat to our republic.
“Robed leftists who rule by ideology and not the Constitution.”
Judges and justices swear an oath to “support” the literal, clear meaning and intent.
They do not.
Article 1, Section 8, and the absolute 5th Amendment right to private property preclude the entirety of the current communist American welfare state.
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“…courts…must…declare all acts contrary to the manifest tenor of the Constitution void.”
“…men…do…what their powers do not authorize, [and] what they forbid.”
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“[A] limited Constitution … can be preserved in practice no other way than through the medium of courts of justice, whose duty it must be to declare all acts contrary to the manifest tenor of the Constitution void. Without this, all the reservations of particular rights or privileges would amount to nothing … To deny this would be to affirm … that men acting by virtue of powers may do not only what their powers do not authorize, but what they forbid.”
– Alexander Hamilton
How do I know Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson and Justice Sonia Sotomayor are DEI? “I know it when I see it”.
The fact that they come from an inordinately smaller pool of candidates proves their lack of capacity and intellectual inferiority.
They are certifiably affirmative action products and DEI hires.
The local Communist Party Political Officer nominates and approves their fake and substandard “candidacies.”
The three blind mice, named by another, should be watching the videos released by Project Veritas and others filming Union bosses coaching teachers who committed violence, explaining how to avoid punishment. One case involved a rape, and though it may not be on this particular video, officials admitted to covering up that type of abuse.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmYNNJZHhPY
Can we trust the teachers unions? No
Can we trust all teachers? No.
There is deep immorality in the school systems promoted by leftists. The three blind mice do not care, and hearing some of the voices of other voters on this blog, we cannot trust the government to look after our children. That job belongs to the parent.
WOW
Color me shocked.
They know. They don’t care.
Next time you go for a job interview, you won’t be about your IQ or skill sets
Hilarious! …. Everyone is a liar!
….All the more reason, we need the Constitution and Justices who interpret the law based on the primacy of that document, not on favored politics and wild emotions. We need the Constitution now more than ever—whoever says it is dated and passe is an insurrectionist (the real kind).
I’d be shocked if the right will ever willingly surrender power through the electoral process now they’ve stacked the courts, gerrymandered districts, taken control of DOJ and DOD through the work of people like you, Turls….
Probably time for us to actively refuse the Christian nationalist right wing rhetoric you guys insist on shoveling down our throats. F you, Turls. Let the resentment of your work run three generations deep and be discussed in the proper light post the collapse of America as we know it.
Go away gigi. Take your hate elsewhere. Prof. Turley doesn’t read the comments, as has been pointed out to you numerous times.
Gigi is upset because he was dissed by his exbf for little children.
Happy Pride Gigi – George. Yes, it is true, the Feds are tracking you
Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington Post employee charged with child pornography possession
ulitzer Prize-winning Washington Post employee has been charged with possession of child pornography following an FBI search of his home in Washington, D.C.
Thomas LeGro, 48, was taken into custody by the FBI on Thursday, according to local TV station NBC News4. The arrests followed the search in which FBI agents seized his laptop and found that it contained 11 videos depicting child pornography, according to a federal criminal complaint.
The FBI had been tracking LeGro’s internet activity since May 8.
In the search Tuesday, agents saw what appeared to be fractured pieces of a hard drive in a basement hallway and the empty cover of a hard drive in a basement office when they entered LeGro’s house, according to the criminal complaint. LeGro was in the doorway at the top of the stairs to the basement.
https://justthenews.com/nation/crime/pulitzer-prize-winning-washington-post-employee-charged-child-pornography-possession
Nice,
another lib bites the dust.
As long as you leftists keep up with the stupid and crazy, we will continue to win elections. Bill Maher has been calling you out on it for years now.
What Christian nationalist right wing rhetoric? No one is doing anything with Christian nationalist right wing rhetoric. If America is going to collapse, it will likely gross incompetence from leftist Democrats. Just look at the failed states of CA, IL, NY, MD to name a few. And the good professor’s work will be remembered as great works of his time.
Ano
gerrymandered districts,
Wrong party bud. Check your own history
You’d rather the left control the citizens of this country by forcing us to think, speak, and consume only what they allow. The left has zero morality and the desire to control every aspect of our lives. No thank you leftist. We’ll pass.
Anon – You wrote some textbook-quality leftist-projection there, partner. It’s very apparent that your fears are of the very things that the democrat party has been actively doing for years. Be grateful that there are still enough patriotic Americans to offset the destructive forces of the left. Their focus on the destruction of innocent children says all that needs to be said.
https://trk.cowboystatedaily.com/l/01JY1B5S6X348CMBKQTZSW7BEX_71
Please don’t let “Turls” shovel his right wing rhetoric down your throat. He doesn’t command you to come to his site and read his posts.
@Gary
🧌🧌🧌
I’m at the point where I will, without hesitation, beat anybody promoting this degenerate propaganda to death.
And I will help this person. Do not take an innocent young child and corrupt them into the sicko’s on the Left.
Is he talking about trumps sons that were born to a non U.S. Citizen?
Hatred of legal immigrant women who didn’t arrive as Illegal Aliens to be part of Cartel sex trafficking making itself felt?
I don’t believe you know what you are talking about numbnusts.
George’s daily defense (when he attempts any): Because you can’t read for comprehension. Says a lot about the level of ignorance you have.
George posts as The Democrat Clown Of Babble – and when his infantile attempts at reason fail, responds by claiming those shredding him simply don’t understand because their reading comprehension is worse than his.
Feelings hurt because your Judicial Monarchy delivering the Democrat Groomer Agenda got kicked to the curb, George? Remember when you were slavering about “no Kings, except Democrat Royalty on the Bench”, George? Good times, huh!
You’re wasting your time, Georgina has run off to his safe space.
“Mr. Ad Hominem” viciously attacks again with yet another invaluable contribution.
___________________________________________________________________________________________
“If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all.”
– Bambi
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Stop upsetting Bambi and attempting to force-feed your bizarre and reprehensible, toxic ego.
Poor George, he cain’t hep it! He was born with a silver foot in his mouth!
Schools need to refocus on the “3 R’s” and STEM and get out of the social engineering business entirely.
But what are they to do with all the chest binders and tucking swimming outfits?
Simple,
1. Set up a central location where all such items can be sent and encourage people to send said items there.
2. Set up a pay-per-view event, charging the typical $50 per head. the PPV event shall consist of taking the afforementioned items, placing them in a massive pile, and setting said pile afire.
3. All monies collected from the afforementioned PPV event shall be donated to organizations which support and assist de-transitioners.
Voila! You’ve killed two birds with one stone.
George copied and pasted his alternate daily complaint:As usual Turley overdramatizes and mischaracterizes the dissent’s opinion.
George, as always, conveniently leaves out the only way he is able to achieve some semblance of sexual gratification is to come here each day to attack and villify Professor Turley and his columns, regardless of the subject. George is just doing a different version of internet Toobin.
A passing thought: George, does this particular column outrage you because Toobin is all you’re left to resort to – now that sexual attraction to kindergarten kids with Trump in office is risky business?
“Justice Sonia Sotomayor declared that there “will be chaos for this nation’s public schools” and both education and children will “suffer” if parents are allowed to opt their children out of these lessons. She also worried about the “chilling effect” of the ruling, which would make schools more hesitant to offer such classes in the future. It was a particularly curious concern, since parents would like teachers to focus more on core subjects and show greater restraint in pursuing social agendas.”
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We’ve gone from hostility to acceptance to tolerance to advocacy to outright worship of this faction. This is no longer a civil rights movement; it’s a cult movement. And the sad thing is that’s its led by a coterie of female SCOTUS justices with suspect IQs.
The culture warriors in public education (a minority, not the majority) now face a tough decision. Continue the indoctrination and weather chaos that brings education to a standstill?….or desist from culture warfare on school grounds?
It seems the educational mission operated well BEFORE this cultural warfare was brought into the schools.
George copied and pasted every day’s complaint:That is what Turley conveniently leaves out.
George, as always, conveniently leaves out the only way he is able to achieve some semblance of sexual gratification is to come here each day to attack and villify Professor Turley and his columns, regardless of the subject. George is just doing a different version of internet Toobin.
The people who I feel for the most in this trans situation are not the parents or even the children. It’s the future nursing home workers, decades from now, that will have to remind memory-addled trans people, every five minutes, that they fell victim to a social contagion back in the 2020s and had their privates cut off in some bizarre fit of madness.
* Yes, and Sotomayor and incredibly ill educated Jackson are examples of the uneducated rising to positions where true damage can be done. Apparently Kagan is DEI, as well.
Congress is a disaster because of it. Ill educated people with slim to none aptitude have risen to levels of true damage and harm. Salvage meritocracy from this wreckage. LGBT is a study for medical schools only.
The End is Nigh: “Chaos”
Kneel and worship the epitomy of evil. Satanic pandemonium:
Wild uproar or unrestrained disorder; chaos or tumult
Judges swear an oath to protect and uphold the Constitution. Just curious, Justices Kagan, Sotomayor, and Jackson: does the Constitution protect individual rights, or does it protect public schools from the “chaos” that would supposedly result from upholding those rights?
When Judges look down on whatever individual rights are at stake in a case, they often resort to the “chaos” canard to spit on those rights, as if that somehow changes the meaning of the Constitution.
“. . . they often resort to the “chaos” canard to spit on those rights . . .”
That is an excellent, critical point.
To them, individuals making free choices (like in a grocery store) is “chaos.” And to combat that chaos, they want a noose around our collective necks.
Sam,
Well said.
Or, they want to elect avowed Socialists, who want free everything, state ran grocery stores and “seizing the means of production.”
Where have we seen that before and end in not just failure but the deaths of millions? Oh, that is right, Mao’s Great Leap Forward.
Professor Turley: just curious – do you find it much more comfortable on a personal level to cal them “liberal justices”, rather than “Democrat judges”? Your fellow Democrat lawyers who now attempt to deliver Democrat policies and theology from the bench?
Aside from the fact there is nothing “liberal” about these Democrat Monarchs On The Bench, they never make these supposedly honest faith mistakes in law that are advantageous to any Republican, never mind the Trump administration. Their deliberate mistakes higher courts repeatedly overturn are always in favor of your current Democratic Party.
You never noticed that!
Transgenderism as promoted by the American progressives is less scientific than creationism. Their only motive is to completely destroy the foundations of western civilization
I’m tired of seeing suspiciously tall trans females with adam’s apples and no hips. Too freaky.