| October 18, 2011
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Preserve Parental Rights
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| Notes 1. Fields v. Palmdale, 427 F.3d 1197 (2005).
2. Parker v. Hurley, 474 F.Supp. 2d 261 (D Mass 2007).
3. Roper v. Simmons, 543 U.S. 551 (2005). Also Graham v. Florida, 560 U.S. ___ (2010).
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| Parental Rights in Danger - Pass It On! Things are getting ready to break wide open in the next few weeks. You may already be aware of Overruled, the new 30-minute docudrama about parental rights scheduled for release on November 1. But there are also developments in Congress that should lead to some big news very soon.
In the meantime, here are some quotes and stories to consider and pass along. Every American should care about parental rights. Those who don’t simply aren’t paying attention to some of the things going on in our country. Consider:
In 2005, the U.S. Ninth Circuit “affirm[ed] that the Meyer-Pierce [fundamental parental] right does not extend beyond the threshold of the school door.” They also held that “[p]arents…have no constitutional right…to prevent a public school from providing its students with whatever information it wishes to provide, sexual or otherwise, when and as the school determines that it is appropriate to do so.”1
In 2007, the federal District Court for the district of Massachusetts held that “Parents do have a fundamental right to raise their children. They are not required to abandon that responsibility to the state. [They] may send their children to a private school…. They may also educate their children at home.”2 So, sending a child to public school is in this paragraph equated to “abandoning your parental rights to the state.”
In 2008, the Maryland Board of Education announced, “While we recognize the right of parents to direct the education of their children, we must bend their will to the state’s obligation to educate its citizens.”
Nor do such problems exist only for parents with kids in public schools.
In Roper v. Simmons (2005), and in Graham v. Florida and Sullivan v. Florida (2010), the Supreme Court overthrew the laws of Texas and of Florida, writing, “the Court has referred to the laws of other countries and to the international authorities as instructive for its interpretation of the [U.S. Constitution].”3 In both instances, they applied the UN’s Convention on the Rights of the Child to United States law, though we have not yet ratified this dangerous treaty.
Last year, a judge in Philadelphia cited the concept of “Customary International Law” in applying an optional protocol to the UN’s Convention on the Rights of the Child to a federal court case. And the number of judges applying international standards in our courts seems to be increasing.
Daytime curfews around the country threaten the right of home-schooled and private-schooled children to move freely in public without harassment from law officers during public school hours. California just passed a law allowing children as young as 12 to consent to the Gardasil vaccine without parental knowledge or consent. Minnesota already allows the same thing. In Virginia, the vaccine is even mandated by law, the state having made the decision in parents’ stead.
It seems every week brings more violations of parents’ liberty to make decisions for the good of their children. It almost makes President Reagan’s words sound prophetic: “We will spend our twilight years telling our grandchildren what it was like to live in America when men were free.”
But we are not doomed to that yet. In fact, I expect to bring very good news next week, news of our efforts to turn back the tide by adopting the Parental Rights Amendment.
Until then, pass the word, sound the alarm, and urge your friends to sign up at parentalrights.org/petition.
Sincerely,
Michael Ramey
Dir. of Communications & Research
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