WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court's conservative majority appears poised to rule against a Montgomery County Public Schools policy that leaves parents with no choice to opt their three and four-year-old children out of reading books in class containing LGBTQ related content.
All parents are seeking is the right, on Religious grounds, to remove students from lessons teaching gender transitioning, pride parades, and pronoun preferences.
Becket Fund For Religious Liberty is representing the parents before the high court.
Here is how they describe the books in question:
"One book tasks three and four-year-olds to search for images from a word list that includes “intersex flag,” “drag queen,” “underwear,” “leather,” and the name of a celebrated LGBTQ activist and sex worker. Another book advocates a child-knows-best approach to gender transitioning, telling students that a decision to transition doesn’t have to “make sense.” Teachers are instructed to say doctors only “guess” when identifying a newborn’s sex anyway."
RELATED: Parents push back on policy removing right to opt kids out of reading LGBTQ+ books in school
“This is the hill we’re going to die on in terms of not respecting religious liberty, given that history?" asked Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who was raised in Montgomery County.
At times debate in the court room got heated.
CNN reported this exchange between Justice Neil Gorsuch and Alan Schoenfeld, a lawyer representing the school system, on the type of subject matter in the books.
“That’s the one where they are supposed to look for the leather and things – and bondage, things like that,” Gorsuch said.
“It’s not bondage,” Schoenfeld, interjected. “Sex worker, right?” Gorsuch replied. “No,” Schoenfeld responded.
After receiving some assistance from Associate Justice Amy Coney Barrett, Gorsuch retorted “Drag queen?”
“The leather that they’re pointing to is a woman in a leather jacket,” answered Schoenfeld, while also acknowledging "one of the words is drag queen."
According to CNN, one Justice seeming more sympathetic towards the school system was Sonia Sotomayor of the court's more left-leaning wing.
“Looking at two men getting married – is that the religious objection?” asked Sotomayor. “The most they’re doing is holding hands.”
Prior to reaching the Supreme Court, parents hit a roadblock with lower judges, one of which ruled parents had no "fundamental right" to opt their children out of a public-school curriculum conflicting with their religious views.
An federal appeals court later upheld that ruling.
The Justices will have final say, with a ruling expected sometime in June.
During the recent legislative session, the Maryland Senate revamped a bill originally introduced in the State House of Delegates that would've barred parents statewide from opting young school children out of learning about gender identity and sexual orientation.
The final version of the bill that passed kept parent opt-out rights in-place.