By a 6-3 ruling Friday, the Supreme Court sided with parents who sued Montgomery County Public Schools in Maryland to opt their children out of mandatory LGBTQ-inclusive curriculum, overturning a 2023 federal court ruling and handing a legal victory to conservatives who opposed the district’s policies on religious grounds.

The case, Mahmoud v. Taylor, stemmed from the Montgomery County Board of Education’s March 2023 decision requiring elementary school students to read LGBTQ-inclusive children’s books. These books had been available in MCPS since November 2022, but the school board’s move did not let parents opt out “for any reason” or require the district to notify parents if a book referencing gender or sexual identity issues would be read in class.

Among the approved books were “My Rainbow,” about a mother who makes a rainbow-colored wig for her transgender daughter, and “Love, Violet,” which centers around a girl who develops a crush on her female classmate. Another book, “Pride Puppy,” tells the story of a dog that gets lost during a gay pride parade.

In the court’s majority opinion issued Friday, Justice Samuel Alito wrote that “The board’s introduction of the ‘LGBTQ+ inclusive’ storybooks, along with its decision to withhold opt-outs, places an unconstitutional burden on the parents’ rights to the free exercise of their religion.” Alito’s decision overturned an August 2023 district court ruling in MCPS’ favor, which ruling was later upheld by the U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, but the Supreme Court’s decision effectively strikes down both rulings.

Jeffrey Trimbath, president of the Maryland Family Institute, said MCPS’ refusal to let parents opt their children out of this curriculum — a reversal of its original policy — drove his organization to work on behalf of the plaintiffs and coordinate rallies in support of their arguments.

“The reason that the school district gave for revoking the opt-out was [that] we would have too many parents opting out of this, which I think was just telling,” Trimbath said. “This is kind of like, the market is telling you something here.”

During oral arguments before the Supreme Court in April, MCPS attorney Alan Schoenfeld said allowing parents to opt out led to absenteeism made it “infeasible” for the district to provide alternative instruction. Justice Brett Kavanaugh, a Montgomery County native, told Schoenfeld that not allowing opt-outs meant MCPS had reached a point of “not respecting religious liberty” giving the country’s history as a “beacon” of tolerance.

In a dissenting opinion joined by Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson, Justice Sonia Sotomayor argued the majority’s decision legitimized a “parental veto power” over school curriculum decisions.

“The Court, in effect, constitutionalizes a parental veto power over curricular choices long left to the democratic process and local administrators,” Sotomayor wrote in. “That decision guts our free exercise precedent and strikes at the core premise of public schools: that children may come together to learn not the teachings of a particular faith, but a range of concepts and views that reflect our entire society.”

Mahmoud v. Taylor got its name from lead plaintiffs Tamer Mahmoud and Enas Barakat, Muslim parents removed their elementary-aged son from MCPS after the district court ruling and named MCPS Superintendent Thomas Taylor as a lead defendant. Other plaintiffs who opposed the policy on religious grounds were members of the Catholic and Ukrainian Orthodox churches.

Reactions to ruling

The high court’s decision quickly resonated in Maryland and across the country on Friday. President Donald Trump applauded the decision as a win for parental rights.

“I think that ruling was a great ruling, and I think it’s a great ruling for parents,” Trump said “…They lost control of the schools, they lost control of their child. And this is a tremendous victory for parents.”

Moms for Liberty, a conservative education group, cheered the decision against “authoritarian schools in Maryland.”

“The Supreme Court just sided with parents over the authoritarian schools in Maryland that sought to FORCE elementary school children into explicit, sexual education against the will of their parents,” the group’s CEO, Tina Descovich, said in a statement.

Maryland Rep. Andy Harris described the ruling as a “victory for parental rights and religious freedom across the country.”

On the state level, Maryland Republicans like House Minority Leader Jason Buckel and House Minority Whip Jesse Pippy cheered the ruling for giving parents more say in what their children are taught in public schools.

“These parents from a variety of religious backgrounds did not seek to ban or remove material or in any way encourage the bullying or marginalization of any other child or family,” Buckel said in a statement. “They simply wanted the ability to opt their children out of lessons that conflicted with their religious beliefs.”

“Maryland’s school systems should recognize that parental rights are fundamental; this is something our members fight for every year,” Pippy added.

Phillip Alexander Downie, CEO of the Montgomery County Pride Center, criticized the decision as an effort to “erase LGBTQIA+” children. He believes schools need more LGBTQ-inclusive books, not less, to affirm the identity of students who are “fighting to be seen.”

“When we’re not learning about biological differences, which are elementary conversations, then we are not allowing for the full spectrum of our humanity to exist within our education [system]. And then we’re not presenting a fact-based education,” Downie said.

Montgomery County Education Association President David Stein said while the decision was “unsurprising,” it does a “great disservice to our community.”

“The decision has the power to disrupt our classrooms and our school communities by assaulting a bedrock principle of public education: that the diversity of our students and their families should be valued and celebrated,” Stein said in a statement. “This is part of a sustained and ongoing attack on public education.”

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