The following quote may be attributed to Alliance Defending Freedom Senior Counsel and Vice President of Appellate Advocacy John Bursch regarding a friend-of-the-court brief ADF attorneys filed Friday with the U.S. Supreme Court in Grizzell v. San Elijo Elementary School. There, a mother seeks to represent her minor children in challenging a California school district that she alleges engaged in racial discrimination while her children were enrolled. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit refused to let the mother bring her children’s claims without hiring an attorney. Supporting the mother’s effort to protect her children’s rights, ADF attorneys filed the brief on behalf of three parents who successfully challenged the imposition of harmful gender ideology on their children by their schools:
“Parents know and love their children best. Recognizing that, American courts have long protected their right to speak on their children’s behalf in court. But the 9th Circuit ruled—citing precedent rather than reversing it—that parents’ right to speak for their children in court depends on their ability to hire an attorney, even if a parent can’t pay or find an attorney willing to take the case for free. This jeopardizes parents’ ability to protect their children’s best interests, like our clients Tammy Fournier, Gretchen Melton, and Carmilla Tatel were able to do when they sought to protect their children from radical gender identity ideology. We urge the U.S. Supreme Court to grant review of this case to ensure that the parent-child relationship receives the legal protection it deserves.”
In a landmark parental rights case, ADF attorneys successfully represented Fournier in T.F. and B.F. v. Kettle Moraine School District after the school district refused her express desire for the district to treat her daughter as a girl. An ADF allied attorney successfully represented Melton and Tatel in Tatel v. Mt. Lebanon School District, a legal challenge to the school district’s refusal to exempt children from gender identity lessons.
ADF attorneys also filed a friend-of-the-court brief in a similar case before the Supreme Court in Warner v. Hillsborough County School Board.
Alliance Defending Freedom is an alliance-building, non-profit legal organization committed to protecting religious freedom, free speech, parental rights, and the sanctity of life.
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