Texas Needs a Parental Rights Amendment

A Parental Rights Amendment is the best way to ensure parental rights are protected for future generations. Right now, the rights of Texas parents rest almost entirely in the hands of unelected federal judges, who come and go regularly and could change their mind on parental rights at any time.

This February, during the 88th Texas Legislative session, Representative Dustin Burrows filed a joint resolution proposing a constitutional amendment protecting the fundamental right of parents to raise their children.

Passing a Parental Rights Amendment to the Texas Constitution is critical to the protection of parental rights in Texas for two reasons.

1. First, passing a Parental Rights Amendment to the Texas Constitution would significantly shrink the power of the federal government over questions of parental rights. This is because those rights would rest in the Texas Constitution, giving more authority to elected Texas judges, rather than being only in federal constitutional case law.
2. Second, it would ensure the protection of these rights into the future because while case law can change quickly with the replacement of a single judge, an amendment to the Texas Constitution would be extremely difficult to repeal. Rights in the Texas constitution can only be lost if two thirds of Texas legislators repeal it and a majority of Texas voters ratify the change.

What will the amendment say?

• The right of parents to make decisions for their children is paramount and it must be protected in the Texas Constitution. The first section of the amendment states that “The liberty of a parent to direct the upbringing of the parent’s child is a fundamental right. This right includes the right to direct the care, custody, control, education, moral and religious training, and medical care of the child.” This language ensures that the right of parents to make decisions for their child is protected for future generations. 
• The second section of the amendment says “The state or a political subdivision of this state shall not interfere with the rights of a parent described by subsection (a) unless the interference is: (1) essential to further a compelling governmental interest; and (2) narrowly tailored to accomplish that compelling governmental interest.”
• This language protects the rights of parents under the highest level of judicial scrutiny available. In non-legal terms, it means that the state can never interfere with the decisions of a parent for that parent’s child unless it is necessary to fulfill an essential duty of the state (such as protecting the child from significant harm) and only if the state’s solution is the least invasive solution that can possibly solve the problem.
• Parental rights are currently protected by this same level of judicial scrutiny under the US Constitution. Adding this protection to the Texas Constitution ensures the longevity of those rights and makes them clear to state courts that often misunderstand them. 

Read the full text of the Constitutional Amendment (H.J.R. No. 85) here.

How we pass an amendment to the Texas State Constitution

FFP’s team is prioritizing the passage of a constitutional amendment that would specifically protect the right of parents to make decisions regarding the care, custody, control, education, upbringing, moral and religious training, and medical care of their child. We are working with legislators, coalition partners, and legal experts to get this amendment passed.

To add an amendment to the Texas constitution, the proposed amendment has to pass the Texas House and Texas Senate each by a two thirds vote. The proposed amendment will then be placed on the ballot and must be ratified by a majority of Texas voters.

The passage of the Parental Rights Constitutional Amendment is FFP’s top priority for the 2023 Texas legislative session.