In the 2022–2023 school year, the Montgomery County Board of Education in Maryland introduced a set of LGBT-inclusive storybooks into its elementary curriculum, kindergarten through fifth grade. The books featured story lines built around sexuality and gender identity for children as young as five. Initially, the board offered parents the choice to opt out. But when a wave of parents exercised that right, the board quietly revoked it — without a vote, a hearing, or even an explanation — though officials later cited “administrative burden” and the risk that excused children might feel “stigmatized.” The message to parents, many of them observant Muslims, Christians, and Jews, was plain: your religious convictions about marriage and family are an inconvenience, and your children will be instructed accordingly.

Last June, the Supreme Court disagreed. In Mahmoud v. Taylor, a 6–3 decision written by Justice Samuel Alito, the court held that the government burdens parents’ free exercise of religion when it compels their children to participate in instruction that violates the family’s religious beliefs. The board was ordered to restore notice and opt-out provisions. The decision was a victory — but it was also a confession. It confirmed that, a full decade after Obergefell v. Hodges, the conflict between state-imposed orthodoxy on marriage and the conscience of ordinary families had not been resolved. It had simply moved downstream — from the courthouse to the classroom.