The Washington Post reports:

The Supreme Court agreed Friday to hear a case about whether public schools must give parents of elementary schoolchildren a chance to opt out of instruction on gender and sexuality that they say goes against their religious convictions.

The case stems from a challenge by a group of parents in Maryland’s largest school system, who objected to Montgomery County education officials prohibiting parents from taking their children out of lessons that used storybooks with LGBTQ+ characters and themes.

The parents said the policy violates their First Amendment rights to freedom of religion and sued in 2023. The policy put the school district at the center of a contentious national debate over how to teach gender and sexuality in schools.

Read the full article. 

The case was filed by the Catholic anti-LGBTQ hate group, the Becket Fund, whose senior counsel celebrates below. 

The Becket Fund last appeared here in July 2024 when they sued to overturn Michigan’s ban on ex-gay torture. 

In 2014, the Becket Fund joined with NOM, San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone, and Alliance Defending Freedom to form an anti-LGBTQ “supergroup” to battle same-sex marriage.

In 2013, the Becket Fund joined with major Catholic groups in sponsoring the so-called Manhattan Declaration, signers of which avow that they will “civilly disobey” laws that protect LGBTQ people from discrimination.

The Becket Fund was founded in 1994 by a former Reagan administration Justice Department lawyer who worked under future Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito.

The group is named for Saint Thomas Becket, who was Archbishop of Canterbury under King Henry II until he was murdered by followers of the King in the year 1170.

Outside of LGBTQ issues, the Becket Fund is best known for winning cases on behalf of the Little Sisters of the Poor and Hobby Lobby.