Soon-to-come bill puts parental rights back on the charts

In 1925, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled parents possess a fundamental right to direct the education and upbringing of their children - but that was weakened in 2000 when the Supreme Court declined to rule it a fundamental right. Will Estrada of the Home School Legal Defense Association tells OneNewsNow that since then, numerous state court decisions have further deteriorated parental rights.

“And with that we've seen international law, U.N. treaties, U.N. opinions, that further seek to weaken parental rights,” he says. “And we've just seen a trend of policy makers, lawyers and legal scholars saying that the education and raising of children is something too important to be left just to parents.”

Senators Lindsey Graham and John McCain are preparing to introduce the Parental Rights Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Estrada summarizes what that amendment could mean.

“The central point of that amendment is the liberty of parents to direct the upbringing, education and care of their children as a fundamental right,” he explains. “We've got it down in Section 6 that no treaty may be adopted nor shall any source of international law be employed to supersede, modify, interpret or apply to the rights guaranteed by this article." 

Estrada is calling for voters to contact their elected representatives and urge them to support the amendment, which must pass with a two-thirds’ vote in both houses of Congress and then be ratified by three-fourths of the states for it to be added to the U.S. Constitution.