On Monday, the Supreme Court declined to take up a case on whether a Colorado school district can secretly transition children behind their parents’ backs. However, some of the conservative justices warned lower courts against avoiding the underlying questions of parental rights.

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From Breitbart:

Two sets of parents with minor children at Wellington Middle School in Poudre School District R-1 asked the High Court to revive their lawsuit after lower courts dismissed the case on procedural grounds without considering the merits of the case. The parents argued the “District Secrecy Policies” usurp their parental rights in violation the Fourteenth Amendment’s Due Process Clause.

“In addition to excluding parents from decision making, these policies explicitly call for concealment of students’ gender identities from parents unless and until the student and the school decide to involve them. Thus, under such policies, parents’ fear that the school district might make decisions for their children without their knowledge and consent is not speculative,” parents argued in their petition. “Despite this reality, courts enable this blatant interference with parental liberty to continue. This Court’s intervention is therefore necessary to afford Petitioners their day in court on the merits through overturning the denial of leave to amend and to re-establish the existence and the breadth of parental rights with respect to the care, control, and upbringing of their children.”

In its response to the parents, the school district reportedly argued that, since the case was dismissed on procedural grounds, the parents are essentially seeking an “advisory opinion” from the high court that “would fail to afford them any relief from the [lower courts’] rulings.” And, although he agreed with the denial of the petition, Justice Samuel Alito wrote a statement joined by Justices Thomas and Gorsuch warning lowers courts against avoiding the addressing these controversial policies:

“I concur in the denial of certiorari because petitioners do not challenge the ground for the ruling below. But I remain concerned that some federal courts are tempted to avoid confronting a particularly contentious constitutional question: whether a school district violates parents’ fundamental rights when, without parental knowledge or consent, it encourages a student to transition to a new gender or assists in that process,” Alito wrote.

Justice Alito highlighted the petitioners assertation that nearly 6,000 schools now have policies “that purposefully interfere with parents’ access to critical information about their children’s gender identity choices and school personnel’s involvement in and influence on those choices.” He called these policies both “troubling” and “tragic,” suggesting that the question of whether schools have a right to hide information from parents will eventually have to be answered.

The case, Lee v. Poudre School District R-1, was brought by two sets of parents against the Colorado school district. One of these parents, Erin Lee, is an outspoken mother who serves as the executive director of Protect Kids CO. She has appeared on IFA broadcasts and was a featured speaker at our Colorado Policy and Prayer event. You can view her most recent webcast appearance from April of this year by clicking here.

Though this Supreme Court decision may not be exactly what we wanted, Justice Alito’s focus on the underlying questions of parental rights is encouraging. Let’s pray for an end to the secretive transitioning of children, and let’s pray for the protection of parental rights across America!

What do you think of this decision and Justice Alito’s statement? Share your thoughts and prayers below.

(Excerpt from Breitbart. Photo Credit: Ehimetalor Akhere Unuabona on Unsplash)