On January 4, the Liberty Justice Center, the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty (WILL), 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 with the U.S. Supreme Court in support of the petitioners in John and Jane Parents 1 v. Montgomery County Board of Education.
A group of Maryland parents are petitioning the Supreme Court to hear their case challenging a school policy that requires teachers and administrators to support students’ social transition to a new gender identity at school and conceal that information from parents. After the District Court dismissed the case as a dispute over a “curriculum” decision, the Fourth Circuit Court declined to rule on the case’s merits, dismissing the parents’ challenge to the policy because they had not argued that the decision would affect their own children.
In their amicus brief, the Liberty Justice Center, WILL, and Dr. Erica Anderson urge the Supreme Court to grant the plaintiffs’ petition, reverse the Fourth Circuit Court’s ruling, and reaffirm parents’ right to direct the upbringing and education of their children.
“Parents should be involved in, not excluded from, significant medical decisions such as if and when a child experiencing gender incongruence should socially transition,” said Dr. Erica Anderson. “No professional association has ever recommended that teachers and school officials—who have no expertise whatsoever in these issues—facilitate a child’s social transition in secret from their parents.”
“Policies like these ignore the strong Supreme Court precedent supporting parents’ constitutional right to direct the upbringing of their children,” said Emily Rae, Senior Counsel at the Liberty Justice Center. “These policies purposefully exclude parents and guardians from some of the most important elements of their children’s lives and put unrelated school administrators in that position of trust in their place. This cannot stand.”
The Liberty Justice Center is also litigating to defend parents’ rights and children’s well-being against attacks by the California Attorney General. Additional information about LJC’s work in California v. Chino Valley Unified School District is available here.
The Liberty Justice Center’s amicus brief in Parents v. Montgomery is available here.