Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Aug 16, 2023 / 11:30 am
A federal appeals court has thrown out a parental rights lawsuit over a Maryland school district’s policy that allows teachers to withhold information about a student’s transgender identity from his or her parents.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit ruled 2-1 on Monday that the parents lacked standing to sue the Montgomery County Board of Education because the parents never alleged that their children had identified as transgender or that the school district was keeping information away from the parents named in the lawsuit. The ruling found that the parents could not show any injury.
“Absent an injury that creates standing, federal courts lack the power to address the parents’ objections to the guidelines,” Judge A. Marvin Quattlebaum wrote in the majority opinion.
Quattlebaum acknowledged that the parents made “compelling arguments” about the policy itself but could not demonstrate a current injury, an impending injury, or a substantial risk of future injury. The decision did not determine whether the policy itself is constitutional or legal but only that the parents in the lawsuit did not have grounds to sue.