2025 News UMass Law News 2025: As SCOTUS Rules on Religious Freedoms, Duncan Cites a Historic Trend

Professor Dwight Duncan was interviewed on the recent SCOTUS ruling siding with parents who sued a school board after they introduced “LGBTQ+-inclusive” storybooks into the elementary school curriculum and rescinded a policy allowing parents to opt out of such instruction.

The Supreme Court sided with Maryland parents in Mahmoud v. Taylor over the right to allow parents to opt their children out of LBGTQ+ related classroom education. A group of parents, including Muslim, Catholic, and Ukrainian Orthodox families, sued the Montgomery County Board of Education, arguing that the denial of opt-out options violated their religious freedom and parental rights. The parents in the case believed their parental rights were violated when the school board rescinded the parents’ choice to opt out elementary school children of classroom education that included LGBTQ+ themed storybooks. In a 6-3 vote, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Mahmoud and the other parents, holding that the school board's policies likely violated the parents’ right to direct their religious upbringing of their children. The Court directed the trial court to issue a preliminary injunction requiring the school board to notify parents in advance of lessons using LBGTQ+ related books and allow opt-outs.

UMass Law Professor Dwight Duncan was interviewed by the National Catholic Register on the SCOTUS ruling. Duncan said that the decision “emphasizes that the free exercise of religion entails notice of and opportunity to opt out of public-school practices like forced exposure to ideas antithetical to the parents’ right to direct the religious upbringing and education of their children.” The Court's opinion, written by Justice Samuel Alito, stated that denying parents the ability to opt out “substantially interferes with the religious development of their children.” While the ruling recognizes the rights of parents to guide their children’s education in accordance with their religious beliefs, Duncan explained, it will also impact school districts’ approaches to curriculum and parent participation in the future. “This fits the pattern of the current Supreme Court valuing religious freedom when it comes into conflict with other interests,” Duncan said. “It is probably the strongest religion-friendly court in our country’s history.”