June 27, 2025
Please see below for statements from the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law’s health law experts regarding today’s Supreme Court ruling in Mahmoud v. Taylor.
Professor Michele Bratcher Goodwin, Linda D. & Timothy J. O’Neill Professor of Constitutional Law and Global Health Policy; Co-Faculty Director, O’Neill Institute
“The fundamental question here is whether public schools burden parents’ religious exercise when their children learn about subject matter that does not align with their religious convictions. In this case, the content is gender and sexuality, but the case is being litigated in a climate where the subjects are benign — art, cultural inclusion, history, and more.
As such, the Court opens the door to further weaponization of the First Amendment and challenges to the administration of school governance in ways that are more challenging to reconcile based on traditional Supreme Court jurisprudence.”
Rebecca Reingold, Associate Director, and Guillermina Pappier, Fellow with the Center for Health and Human Rights
“Today, in Mahmoud v. Taylor, the Supreme Court sets a dangerous precedent, paving the way for broad censorship in public school curriculum. As Justice Sotomayor stresses in the dissent, the country’s civic vitality “will become a mere memory if children must be insulated from exposure to ideas and concepts that may conflict with their parents’ religious beliefs.” Reducing exposure to diverse perspectives, backgrounds, and identities from curricula will negatively affect not only countless children throughout the United States, but also broader communities.
The push by advocates and decision-makers to increase parental involvement in school curricula is part of a broader global trend. However, unlike the Supreme Court, courts in other countries have pushed back — stressing the education system’s role in promoting inclusion and diversity and affirming children’s rights to equality, education, and health.
In today’s decision, the Supreme Court fails to reference the rights and best interests of children even once, despite the fact that they will be the ones most affected by the decision.”
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