Religious Accommodations Are Good for Liberalism

When the Supreme Court handed down its opinion in Mahmoud v. Taylor this summer, liberal parents and advocates were understandably alarmed. The Court sided with the plaintiffs, parents from Montgomery County, Maryland, who wanted their young children excused from reading and discussing books on sexual orientation and gender identity. In so doing, it recognized a constitutional right to opt out of specific classroom content that conflicts with one’s religious beliefs and imposed an obligation on school districts to proactively notify parents when such a conflict might occur in classroom instruction.

This new right will be burdensome to administer and opens the door to bad-faith attempts to abuse accommodation requests. But it’s also an opportunity to recommit to public education’s mission