WASHINGTON | Sept. 24, 2026—The Liberty Justice Center, through its PARENTS Initiative, filed an amicus brief with the U.S. Supreme Court in Woolard v. Thurmond, urging the Court to protect parents’ right to participate in educational programs without discrimination based on religion.
The case concerns California charter school independent-study programs that allow parents and guardians to select instructional materials for children who are educated at home. Although families may select from a broad range of secular educational resources, California prohibits them from selecting materials from faith-based organizations—even when those materials otherwise meet the programs’ educational standards.
A group of California parents—the Woolard, Gonzales and Dodson families—challenged that exclusion in October 2023, arguing that the State cannot deny families access to a public benefit because of the religious content or use of the educational materials they choose.
The Liberty Justice Center has supported the parents’ challenge from the beginning, filing support briefs before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in support of the parents’ initial appeal and then urging the full Ninth Circuit to rehear the case in November 2025. LJC now asks the Supreme Court to ensure that the case reaches the proper constitutional outcome: equal access to educational-choice programs for families of all faiths.
In its amicus brief, the Liberty Justice Center urges the Supreme Court to grant the petition for certiorari, explaining that the Ninth Circuit’s decision conflicts with the Constitution’s protection against religious discrimination and with the Supreme Court’s own precedents. Precedents hold that when a State makes a public benefit generally available, it cannot exclude otherwise eligible recipients simply because they would put the benefit to religious use. California has attempted to sidestep those rulings by labeling its charter-supported homeschool program “public education.” But the Liberty Justice Center’s brief explains that attaching a label to a benefit does not change the constitutional analysis.
The stakes extend well beyond the three families at the center of this case. California’s independent-study charter school programs serve hundreds of thousands of students, and more than half of homeschooling parents across the country report choosing to homeschool in part to provide religious instruction. The Ninth Circuit’s decision harms families in especially vulnerable circumstances: students escaping bullying—including Muslim and Jewish students who experience disproportionately high rates of religion-based harassment—students from low-income families who depend on these programs to access educational alternatives, students with disabilities and children from military families seeking continuity in their education.
“Parents—not the government—should be able to choose the educational resources that best serve their children,” said Katie Cosgrove, counsel for the Liberty Justice Center’s PARENTS Initiative. “California cannot offer families educational choice with one hand while denying it with the other when they choose faith-based materials. The Supreme Court should make clear that religious families are entitled to equal access to public-benefit programs.”
The Liberty Justice Center’s PARENTS Initiative stands with parents in their fight against government overreach in their children’s education. Religious discrimination in educational-choice programs harms families of diverse faiths and undermines the principle that government benefits must be administered on equal terms. LJC will continue to defend parents’ right to direct their children’s education and ensure that families can participate in educational-choice programs without religious discrimination.
The Liberty Justice Center’s amicus brief in Woolard v. Thurmond is available here.