Parents Protecting Our Children v. Eau Claire Area School District

On July 8, the Liberty Justice Center and Dr. Erica Anderson—a clinical psychologist with over 40 years of experience, focusing primarily on children and adolescents dealing with gender-identity-related issues—jointly filed an amicus brief urging the U.S. Supreme Court to grant certiorari and hear Parents Protecting Our Children v. Eau Claire Area School District, a case challenging a Wisconsin school district’s gender identity policy on behalf of local parents.

The Eau Claire Area School District enacted a gender identity policy that provides a plan of action for school employees to aid in the social transitions of minor children while keeping this information concealed from parents and guardians—alleging that they “are not entitled to know their kids’ identities” and must instead “earn” access to that information from school employees.

In September 2022, the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty and America First Legal filed a lawsuit to challenge the policy on behalf of Parents Protecting Our Children, a Wisconsin-based parental rights group. The lawsuit argues that the District’s gender identity policy violates parents’ constitutional rights as well as the First Amendment’s guarantee to the free exercise of religion.

The legal groups are asking the U.S. Supreme Court to grant certiorari and hear the case following its dismissal by a lower court, which stated that, despite the parents’ “genuine concern about the [policy’s] possible applications,” the group did not have standing to sue because the policy had not yet been used to conceal information about their children from them.

The Liberty Justice Center’s amicus brief urges the Supreme Court to grant certiorari in the case and issue a ruling that upholds parents’ constitutional rights against the myriad recent challenges by school administrators and special interest groups. The brief argues that denying parents that ability violates their right to direct their child’s upbringing, and points out the vital role that parents play in ensuring that children who are considering a gender transition receive essential mental health support.

“School districts like Eau Claire are treating parents’ constitutional rights as negotiable rather than essential—that cannot stand,” said Emily Rae, Senior Counsel for the Liberty Justice Center. “We urge the Supreme Court to issue a ruling that safeguards parents’ rights to direct their children’s upbringing and puts an end to school administrators’ attempts to replace children’s guardians.”