Speaking of the First Amendment: California School District Treats Supreme Court Ruling on Religious Opt-Outs as a Suggestion

​The U.S. Supreme Court held last year in Mahmoud v. Taylor that public schools cannot burden parents’ free-exercise rights by denying them the opportunity to opt their children out of instruction that conflicts with their religious beliefs.

Now Justin and Rose Taylor, members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, charge that California’s Sunnyvale School District is refusing to honor that constitutional right. Their federal lawsuit says the district will not excuse their two elementary-school children from lessons and storybooks addressing gender identity, sexual orientation, and nontraditional families.

To be clear, the Taylors are not arguing against the inclusion of such lessons. They merely want to be able to withdraw their children from those particular lessons as a matter of their faith.

The arrogance – or is it ignorance? – of this school district is breathtaking. As The Wall Street Journal editorial board explains, the Supreme Court’s decision did not establish a rule applicable only to the Maryland school district involved in Mahmoud. When the High Court interprets the First Amendment, it does so for the entire nation. Memo to Sunnyvale – this includes California’s treatment of the Taylors. If you don’t believe this, please consult one of your district’s high school civics teachers.

The Journal writes:

“In their telling, Sunnyvale at first suggested it could accommodate them, before refusing. According to the complaint, officials wrote that the Mahmoud ruling ‘addressed a specific set of facts in another state’ and ‘does not override California’s statutory requirements governing instructional content.’ Well, state law doesn’t override the Constitution.”
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In actuality, the facts in both the Maryland and California cases are nearly identical – including many of the same reading and course materials. The First Amendment does not stop at the border of any U.S. state – to believe otherwise is to adopt the jurisprudence of the Confederacy. Federal courts must make clear that public school districts cannot evade Mahmoud by treating a constitutional ruling as if it were a suggestion.

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