The National Association of Evangelicals welcomes Supreme Court decisions affirming the rights and responsibilities of parents to guide their children’s education, protecting children from the dangers of online pornography and allowing states to defund medical providers that perform abortions and ban irreversible gender transition treatments for minors. These positive, pro-family, pro-life decisions contrast with a fifth opinion that for now leaves unsettled the vital constitutional guarantee of citizenship to children born in the United States to immigrant parents.

“We celebrate the Court’s pro-family decisions that strengthen parental rights, protect children and diminish the reach of groups that abort the unborn,” said NAE President Walter Kim. “We hope the Court will also quickly restore the long-established and constitutionally protected practice of birthright citizenship,” he added. “No child should be denied the essential rights and protection of citizenship.” 

  • In Mahmoud v. Taylor the Court held that the Montgomery County Public Schools violated parental rights by not allowing them to opt young children out of sessions where sex, romance and gender-themed story books would be discussed. The NAE joined the Christian Legal Society, Focus on the Family and others on amicus briefs supporting the parents in both the Fourth Circuit and Supreme Court appeals.
  • In Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton the Court ruled that Texas can require online pornographers to verify the age of their subscribers in order to protect minor children. The NAE joined the Anglican Church in North America, Salvation Army, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and others on an amicus brief supporting the Texas law. 
  • In United States v. Skrmetti, the Court upheld a Tennessee law barring the use of puberty blockers, hormones and irreversible surgeries for gender transition for minors. 
  • In Medina v. Planned Parenthood the Court found that South Carolina may decline to fund prospective Medicaid providers that perform abortions. 
  • In Trump v. CASA the Court overturned nationwide injunctions issued by three federal district courts preventing the implementation of an executive order withholding citizenship from children born to undocumented parents. The Court did not rule on the executive order itself and has allowed a 30-day period for further litigation before the order can take effect. Most constitutional scholars believe that the policy will eventually be found unconstitutional. 

“Families are central to God’s plan for a flourishing society,” said Kim. “We are grateful for the steps taken to protect our children from abortion, pornography and indoctrination by school systems. We pray that children born to immigrant parents will also be protected.”

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