Parental Rights Amendment to the Texas Constitution

FFP is launching our most significant parental rights campaign of all time with the prioritization of a Parental Rights Constitutional Amendment.

In the 2023 legislative session, FFP’s team of experts will push for the passage of an amendment to the Texas Constitution that will enshrine protections for parents and families for generations to come.

Many people do not realize that the rights of Texas parents currently rest almost entirely in the hands of unelected federal judges. The constitutional rights of parents are currently recognized in federal constitutional case law which interprets the US Constitution to protect the right of parents.

However, these rights are not specifically mentioned anywhere in the U.S. Constitution. As a result, at any time federal judges could change their opinion of whether parental rights are protected by the U.S. Constitution and these rights would be lost.

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

First, it 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, rather than in federal constitutional case law.

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.

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.

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