Parents, not government bureaucrats, have the right to direct their children’s religious upbringing and education.
In recent years, parents have sued school districts to preserve their rights to receive the proper notification of objectionable material in the classroom and the option to remove their children from this instruction. They’ve also sued to stop school districts from keeping secrets from them.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Mahmoud v. Taylor (2025) that the Montgomery County School Board interfered with parents’ rights when it refused to provide notice of homosexual “transgender” indoctrination or allow parents to opt out their children.
President Donald Trump’s first and second administrations strengthened religious freedom and reminded agencies of their duty to protect these rights, not interfere with them.
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) recently sent out a memo directing executive branch agencies to expand protections for religious liberty. Among the 21 principles listed in the guidance memo (PDF) is #10: the government may not interfere with parental rights to direct the religious upbringing of their children.
This right “extends beyond the mere right to teach religion within the confines of one’s home and encompasses the choices parents make outside the home.”
Government bureaucrats used to understand this. Somewhere along the way, a permissive society allowed interference to the point where adults in government schools keep secrets from parents about their children’s well being.
Among the other principles, DOJ reminds employers that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 bars them from discriminating against employees on the basis of religion. And religious employers have the right to hire employees who share their beliefs and mission.
“The updated religious liberty guidance from the Department of Justice is a testament that religious freedom is not a right granted by government, rather it is a right to be protected by government,” said Mat Staver, founder and chairman of Liberty Counsel.
The founders did not envision a government, which is the people, that was hostile to religious people. The Establishment and Free Exercise Clauses protect religion from the government, not the government from religion.
“Religious people, parents, and organizations should never be forced to choose between their beliefs and full participation in public life,” Staver said.
