What does a Parental Rights Amendment do?
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 minds on parental rights at any time.
Passing a Parental Rights Amendment to the Texas Constitution is critical to the protection of parental rights in Texas for two reasons.
- 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.
- 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.
Sign the Parental Rights Amendment Petition
Understanding Section (b) in the Parental Rights Amendment
SJR 34 and HJR 112 do not change the law. Everything in the constitutional amendment reflects current constitutional case law on parental rights, going back well over a century. Nothing is being changed. SJR 34 merely enshrines these rights so they cannot be lost. Thus, on any question of “how would this work?”, the answer is “the same way it does now.”
Section (a) of the constitutional amendment describes the rights that parents have. These rights come from 100+ years of constitutional case law.
Section (b) describes the test that the government has to meet before it can interfere with parental rights. This is the same test that is currently required by constitutional case law.
This test is called the Standard of Review. Every provision of the Constitution has a standard of review. This standard is what a court uses to resolve conflicts between sections of the Constitution.
There are three standards of review: Strict Scrutiny, Intermediate Scrutiny, and Rational Basis. Strict Scrutiny is the highest level of constitutional protection a right can have. This is the standard used in SJR 34 to protect parental rights. It is the same standard that courts currently use to protect parental rights.
Other rights protected by Strict Scrutiny are the freedom of speech, freedom of religion, right to keep and bear arms, etcetera. The Federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) uses Strict Scrutiny to protect religious freedom. The TX version of RFRA does the same.
Some have asked why SJR 34 /HJR 112 includes a test at all. Why not just delete section (b)? If section (b) is deleted, it does not mean that the right becomes absolute. A standard of review will still be used to decide conflicts, but the courts will pick the standard of review, and they might pick a lower one. Thus, removing section (b) does not make the amendment stronger; it makes it weaker.
Including section (b) ensures that parental rights continue to be protected by the highest constitutional bar that exists, the same one used to protect all our other most precious rights.
What does a Parental Rights Amendment do?
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 minds on parental rights at any time.
Passing a Parental Rights Amendment to the Texas Constitution is critical to the protection of parental rights in Texas for two reasons.
- 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.
- 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.
Sign the Parental Rights Amendment Petition
Understanding Section (b) in the Parental Rights Amendment
SJR 34 and HJR 112 do not change the law. Everything in the constitutional amendment reflects current constitutional case law on parental rights, going back well over a century. Nothing is being changed. SJR 34 merely enshrines these rights so they cannot be lost. Thus, on any question of “how would this work?”, the answer is “the same way it does now.”
Section (a) of the constitutional amendment describes the rights that parents have. These rights come from 100+ years of constitutional case law.
Section (b) describes the test that the government has to meet before it can interfere with parental rights. This is the same test that is currently required by constitutional case law.
This test is called the Standard of Review. Every provision of the Constitution has a standard of review. This standard is what a court uses to resolve conflicts between sections of the Constitution.
There are three standards of review: Strict Scrutiny, Intermediate Scrutiny, and Rational Basis. Strict Scrutiny is the highest level of constitutional protection a right can have. This is the standard used in SJR 34 to protect parental rights. It is the same standard that courts currently use to protect parental rights.
Other rights protected by Strict Scrutiny are the freedom of speech, freedom of religion, right to keep and bear arms, etcetera. The Federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA) uses Strict Scrutiny to protect religious freedom. The TX version of RFRA does the same.
Some have asked why SJR 34 /HJR 112 includes a test at all. Why not just delete section (b)? If section (b) is deleted, it does not mean that the right becomes absolute. A standard of review will still be used to decide conflicts, but the courts will pick the standard of review, and they might pick a lower one. Thus, removing section (b) does not make the amendment stronger; it makes it weaker.
Including section (b) ensures that parental rights continue to be protected by the highest constitutional bar that exists, the same one used to protect all our other most precious rights.