It is well known that Justice Ketangi Brown Jackson is not one of the brightest bulbs on the Supreme Court. Most people remember that she could not answer a question about the definition of a woman during her confirmation hearings.
Is she a DEI hire? That probably depends on which side of the political spectrum you are on. However, her questions during oral arguments and her opinions and dissents continue to display a lack of the professional depth and rigor that one expects from a justice on the Supreme Court.
Brown’s comments during oral arguments this past week in the case of Mahmoud v Taylor left many left-wing observers stunned.
Few issues are more consequential or controversial than public education, parental rights, LGBTQ rights and First Amendment religious freedom. The case comes from Montgomery County, Maryland, a religiously diverse suburb of the nation’s capital that includes Catholics, Protestants, Jews, Muslims and others, some of whom object to same-sex sexual relations.
The board of education there adopted LGBTQ-inclusive storybooks such as “Pride Puppy” and “Uncle Bobby’s Wedding” that dealt with such issues as nonbinary identification, gender transitions and gay pride for pre-K to sixth grade classroom instruction.
While initially the board allowed opt-outs by parents, the board changed their policy and does not allow such opt-outs today. A suit was filed stating in part that this burdens the parent’s free exercise of religion in how they raise their children.
Brown stumbled her way into endorsing home schooling or another form of school choice during her comments.
JUSTICE KETANJI BROWN JACKSON: “I’m struggling to see how it burdens a parent’s religious exercise if the school teaches something the parent disagrees with. You have a choice. You don’t have to send your kid to that school.”pic.twitter.com/g8Jl65s2pz
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) April 23, 2025
This comment is tone-deaf and ignorant. Would Brown hold this position if the public schools taught Christian beliefs as they once did? I am certain Brown would argue the non-Christians should not be burdened to being exposed to such ideas that violate their beliefs.
Schools should be teaching reading, writing and arithmetic. Schools should be preparing kids to become responsible adults. It is not the job of the schools to indoctrinate the kids into the latest “woke” ideology.
Brown seems to think it is no big deal for parents to pull their child from a public school and opt for another form of required education. How many low-income households can do this? And let’s remember that if the child does not attend school, there are truancy laws that can be applied.
I wonder what Randi Weingarten, the head of the AFT, thinks of Brown endorsing school choice.