It was a 6-3 preliminary injunction in favor of parents when it should have been a 9-0 smackdown on the merits, but the Supreme Court ruled on Friday in Mahmoud v. Taylor that children are not necessarily bound to participate in the Rainbow Mafia groomers’ indoctrination efforts in public schools. The issue will return to the Fourth Circuit Court, where the Supreme Court says parents are now “likely to succeed on the merits.” In other words, the Court told lower courts to get it right this time.

In 2023, a group of Maryland parents sued Montgomery County Public Schools over the district board’s decision to reverse course and prohibit religious opt-outs for classroom or library time involving books or material with sexually deviant themes. Examples include Uncle Bobby’s Wedding, which treats a same-sex marriage favorably, and Born Ready, which quotes its female protagonist as saying, “I don’t feel like a boy. I AM a boy.”

The Court heard oral arguments in April in a case that involves a smorgasbord of significant issues: education, free speech, religious liberty, parental rights, and the safety of children. Perhaps it helped that the plaintiff parents are Catholic, Ukrainian Orthodox, and Muslim (note the plaintiff’s name in the case — Mahmoud). It probably also helped that even parents in a DC suburb objected to material as too radical for children.

“The Board’s introduction of the ‘LGBTQ+-inclusive’ storybooks, along with its decision to withhold opt-outs, places an unconstitutional burden on the parents’ rights to the free exercise of their religion,” wrote Justice Samuel Alito for the majority. “The parents have therefore shown that they are likely to succeed in their free exercise claims.” He added, “A government cannot condition the benefit of free public education on parents’ acceptance of such instruction.”

Alito argued that Uncle Bobby’s Wedding “clearly conveys the message that same-sex marriage should be accepted by all as a cause for celebration.” Of Born Ready, he noted that its moral message “is that it is seriously harmful to deny a gender transition and that transitioning is a highly positive experience.” That’s indoctrination. They are, Alito reasoned, storybooks “designed to present the opposite viewpoint to young, impressionable children who are likely to accept without question any moral messages conveyed by their teachers’ instruction.”

Remember, the parents weren’t asking to remove or — gasp — ban those books. All they wanted was the choice to keep their kids out of such lessons.

Also in the majority were Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett, while the usual suspects — Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson — were on the wrong end. That trio likewise ruled wrongly in another sex case before the Court, that one involving age verification for pornography websites. What is it about the Left, sex, and kids?

It’s likewise astounding that two levels of lower courts got this case before six Supreme Court justices stepped in.

Emblematic of that lunacy was Sotomayor’s dissent. “Public schools, this Court has said, are ‘at once the symbol of our democracy and the most pervasive means for promoting our common destiny,’” she wrote. “They offer to children of all faiths and backgrounds an education and an opportunity to practice living in our multicultural society. That experience is critical to our Nation’s civic vitality.” Yet she complained, “It will become a mere memory if children must be insulated from exposure to ideas and concepts that may conflict with their parents’ religious beliefs. Today’s ruling ushers in that new reality.” In fact, she added, this ruling will bring “chaos.”

She and her compatriots ought to know well and good that this isn’t about exposing kids to alternative ideas. It’s about proselytizing them into the gender cult. It is an effort by groomers who are obsessed with their own sexual choices to make sure everyone else — especially children — becomes supportive or, better yet, also obsessed.

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Alito cut right to the chase on the indoctrination front:

The Court does not accept the Board’s characterizations of the “LGBTQ+-inclusive” instruction as mere “exposure to objectionable ideas” or as lessons in “mutual respect.” The storybooks unmistakably convey a particular viewpoint about same-sex marriage and gender. And the Board has specifically encouraged teachers to reinforce this viewpoint and to reprimand any children who disagree. That goes beyond mere “exposure.” Regardless, the question in cases of this kind is whether the educational requirement or curriculum at issue would “substantially interfer[e] with the religious development” of the child, or pose “a very real threat of undermining” the religious beliefs and practices the parent wishes to instill in the child.

Undermining those religious beliefs is precisely the point for the Rainbow Mafia. Gender-confused individuals deal with such deep psychological issues that their solution is to convert other people. Winning the hearts of children is both immensely gratifying for them and crucial to securing the future of their movement. We should be thankful six justices saw fit to say that’s not going to fly.

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