Local leaders reacted swiftly Friday following the U.S. Supreme Court’s Friday ruling that parents with religious objections can be granted a preliminary injunction in a case concerning opting out of lessons in Montgomery County public elementary schools that involve storybooks with LGBTQ+ characters.
“Today’s decision by the Supreme Court is a painful setback—not just for Montgomery County Public Schools, but for all of us who believe that every student deserves to feel safe and welcome in the classroom,” Montgomery County Councilmember Evan Glass (D-At-large) said in a statement Friday morning.
Glass, who is running for county executive, is the first openly gay member of the County Council. He said the ruling sends a “chilling message.”
“Representation in education is not about politics, it’s about dignity. It’s about telling a child with two moms that their family matters,” Glass said. “It’s about letting a trans teen know they are not alone. It’s about ensuring that every student knows they belong.”
Montgomery County Republican Central Committee President Reardon Sullivan praised the court’s decision in an email to supporters Friday afternoon.
“Sanity is brought back to Montgomery County schools,” Sullivan said. “This is not only a win for common sense, a return to basic values and parental rights, but a caution to the politicians in Montgomery County, and the nation. Extremism will no longer be tolerated.”
The case, Mahmoud v. Taylor, raised the question of whether Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) infringed upon the parents’ right under the First Amendment to freely exercise their religion when storybooks with LGBTQ+ characters were included in its elementary school curriculum without allowing families to opt out based on religious beliefs. Splitting along ideological lines, the justices ruled 6-3 in favor of the plaintiffs.
“A government burdens the religious exercise of parents when it requires them to submit their children to instruction that poses ‘a very real threat of undermining’ the religious beliefs and practices that the parents wish to instill,” Justice Samuel Alito wrote in the majority opinion for the court. “Based on these principles, we conclude that the parents are likely to succeed in their challenge to the Board’s policies.”
Alito wrote that “until all appellate review in this case is completed,” the school board must notify parents when books containing LGBTQ+ characters are used and allow the parents to excuse their children from the instruction.
The high court’s opinion will directly impact MCPS policies and is likely to have far-reaching effects on public schools nationwide.
The Montgomery County Education Association (MCEA), the union representing MCPS teachers, decried the court’s decision in a statement Friday afternoon. The union has consistently backed the school system throughout the legal process.
The case before the court was brought by a group of parents who sued MCPS for not having a policy to notify families when LGBTQ+ storybooks are used in elementary school classrooms and not allowing families to opt out of those lessons. The parents were represented by lawyers from the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty.
The court said in January that it would hear the case, The Washington Post first reported. The parents asked the Supreme Court to take on the case in September, after a U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court’s denial of a preliminary injunction in May 2024. The group first filed a federal lawsuit in May 2023.
“While unsurprising, the Court’s decision does a grave disservice to our community,” MCEA President David Stein said in a statement Friday afternoon. “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. This is part of a sustained and ongoing attack on public education.”
Mark Eckstein, an MCPS parent and LGBTQ+ advocate, told Bethesda Today in an interview Friday that he was not surprised by the ruling, but said it is “depressing.”
“A very negative and dangerous signal will be sent to other students when they see their fellow students being plucked out of the classroom if their parents don’t agree on certain topics,” Eckstein said.
“A devastating blow”
Phillip Alexander Downie, CEO of the MoCo Pride Center, an organization that promotes health and well-being and offers services and social events for the local LGBTQ+ community, called the ruling a “devastating blow” in a Friday afternoon email to Bethesda Today.
“What happened today is not about ‘parental rights,’” Downie said. “It is about political control over young people’s lives — particularly the lives of LGBTQIA+, BIPOC, disabled, immigrant, and other historically marginalized students who already face disproportionate barriers in and out of the classroom.”
Byron Johns, co-founder of The Black and Brown Coalition for Educational Equity and Excellence, a local advocacy group, said the decision would further marginalize groups that have been historically oppressed.
“This unprecedented decision threatens to unravel decades of progress towards, you know, equal, consistent, inclusive education for all children,” Johns told Bethesda Today on Friday. “It’s just going to weaken the integrity of the educational standards.”
Council President Kate Stewart (D-Dist. 4) said in a statement Friday that she was “disappointed” in the ruling.
“We already see how censorship leads to rewriting history, and othering and demonizing individuals,” Stewart said. “It is not possible to be a truly inclusive community if we suppress speech that is in no way hateful or detrimental to education.”
Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown, a Democrat who has often advocated for the LGBTQ+ community in his work, weighed in on the decision in a statement Friday.
“We are profoundly disappointed by the Court’s decision to compel Montgomery County to allow parents to opt their children out of classes where LGBTQ-inclusive books are read,” Brown wrote. “These materials help teachers create classrooms where all students can thrive and feel safe, regardless of their gender identity or sexual orientation.”
Brown said his office will “continue to defend all Marylanders against discrimination and keep fighting for a future where LGBTQ residents feel safe and accepted.”
Del. Joe Vogel (D-Dist. 17), who represents parts of Rockville and Gaithersburg in the Maryland General Assembly and is openly gay, said in a social media post the decision aims to “erase” members of the LGBTQ+ community.
“You may opt-out of reading books. But you can’t opt out of this essential truth: LGBTQ+ people will continue to exist in our community with pride, resilience, love, and joy,” Vogel wrote.
U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Dist. 8), who represents Montgomery County and lives in Takoma Park, called the decision “cruel” in a statement Friday and expressed concerns about potential ramifications for public education.
“Whatever you think of opt-out policies at the local level, today’s decision is of the most dubious constitutional reasoning and opens a gigantic Pandora’s box,” Raskin said. “Can students opt out of science classes where the theory of evolution is taught if it conflicts with their family religious beliefs in creation-science? Can students opt out of history classes where wars are taught if it conflicts with their family religious beliefs about nonviolence?”
Striking a balance
Some Republican state politicians who praised the court ruling say it rightly rejects a public school system’s attempt to act in an authoritarian manner.
“Today’s decision strikes a balance between the rights of parents to act in accordance with their religious beliefs while still allowing public schools to reflect their greater community,” Maryland House Minority Leader Jason Buckel (R-Dist. 1B) of Allegany County said in a statement on behalf of the Maryland General Assembly House Republican Caucus. “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. They simply wanted the ability to opt their children out of lessons that conflicted with their religious beliefs.”
Maryland Senate Minority Leader Steve Hershey (R-Dist. 36) of Queen Anne’s County called the ruling “common sense” in a statement Friday afternoon.
“Montgomery County Public Schools took the extreme step of shutting parents out of the process by denying their ability to opt out of curriculum that goes against their family’s values,” Hershey said. “That’s not inclusive — it’s authoritarian. Today’s ruling rightly pushes back.”
Meanwhile, national organizations weighed in on the potential precedent that Friday’s decision may set. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) argued in a statement Friday that the ruling could have “far-reaching consequences” for public schools across the country.
“While fundamentally important, religious freedom shouldn’t force public schools to exempt students from any secular lessons that don’t align with their families’ religious views,” Daniel Mach, director of the ACLU’s Program on Freedom of Religion and Belief, said in a statement. “This decision could wreak havoc on public schools, tying their hands on basic curricular decisions and undermining their ability to prepare students to live in our pluralistic society.”
Liberty Counsel, a national legal nonprofit that advocates for evangelical Christian values, praised the majority ruling Friday.
“Parents in all states should be given adequate opportunity to review any instructional material and must be given the ability to opt their children out of instruction that violates their faith,” Liberty Counsel founder and chairman Mat Staver said in a statement.
Eckstein, the MCPS parent, said that in his view, the financial and legal support for the plaintiffs supplied by the Becket Fund and other groups put them in a strategically strong position to win the case.
“This court case was very well funded, very well organized. And I feel in a sense, we were taken advantage of because the actual merits of the case weren’t heard, and the end result is totally unworkable and unimplementable,” Eckstein said. “Their ultimate goal was the erasure of LGBTQ topics.”
While Eckstein said he has found Montgomery County to generally be a welcoming place for his LGBTQ+ family, he said recent federal decisions have prompted his family to pursue a move to Portugal.
“We’re seeing incremental fascism [in the United States],” Eckstein said. “It’s very disappointing.”
Bethesda Today reporter Ashlyn Campbell contributed to this report.
