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Discipline or abuse? This Texas case could change parental rights nationwide.

In December 2023, the parental rights of two Texas parents were terminated after state officials determined they had violated provisions of the state’s Family Code. Those provisions allow termination in cases where a parent “engaged in conduct or knowingly placed the child with persons who engaged in conduct which endangers the physical or emotional well-being of the child.” 

The parents appealed that decision to the Texas Court of Appeals, which found that the trial court’s decision was supported by “evidence that Mother’s discipline of [the child] crossed the line into abuse in terms of lengthy wall stands or walls sits, by most accounts lasting for hours at a time, beatings with a belt, and kneeling on grains of dry rice for extended periods. Punishment … also included forms of food deprivation.” 

As to the father, the appeals court found that the trial court had sufficient evidence to conclude he had “knowingly plac[ed] the children with a person who engaged in conduct which endangered the children’s physical or emotional well-being.” 

About a year after the Court of Appeals decision, voters in Texas approved a ballot measure adding a parental rights amendment to the state constitution. It said, “that parents have the right ‘to exercise care, custody, and control of the parent’s child, including the right to make decisions concerning the child’s upbringing’ and the responsibility ‘to nurture and protect the parent’s child.’”  

The amendment passed overwhelmingly. 

Texas is not alone in its commitment to advancing parental rights, but the passage of the constitutional amendment gave new life to the Texas parents’ efforts above to restore their parental rights. Their case is now before the Texas Supreme Court. 

The court will decide whether parents’ right to “custody and control” of a child shields them from government interference even when they subject a child to the kind of treatment described above. The answer should be a clear and unequivocal “No.”  

The Texas Constitution protects parents so they can “nurture and protect” children. The way the parents above treated their children was neither of those.     

Both parents contend that the treatment of their children was nothing more than a “traditional [form] of discipline” that “may have fallen into disfavor in some parts of society,” and that it should “have no place in serving as a basis for termination.”  

Their positions are supported by some of the same groups that played prominent roles in the campaign for the Texas Parental Rights Amendment. One of them, the Family Freedom Project, describes the case this way: “Abuse and neglect do occur. Some of it can be described as horrific. Texas law has adapted over time to protect children from this very real threat. But there exists another, arguably equal, threat to children and families: state overreach.” 

“As a consequence,” it argues, “innocent parents in the crosshairs of DFPS must choose whether to comply with demands that far exceed any compelling state interest or risk the destruction of their family.” It calls on the court to limit “the government’s power to engineer families to fit its subjective liking, or to destroy them at its pleasure.”  

This libertarian argument has widespread political appeal in the Lone Star State. It also fits with the dominant approach of the Trump administration, which has made empowering parents central to its ideological agenda.

Advocates of parental rights are building on a long history of support by the U.S. Supreme Court. For example, in 1989, the court decided that the government has no constitutional duty to prevent child abuse by a parent.  

As former Chief Justice William Rehnquist explained, the Constitution imposes limits “on the state’s power to act.” It does not “guarantee … certain minimal levels of safety and security.” 

He added that the constitution “forbids the state itself to deprive individuals of life, liberty, and property without due process of law.” It does not “impose an affirmative obligation on the state to ensure that those interests do not come to harm through other means.” 

What the Texas Supreme Court decides in this particular case will be enormously consequential in setting a precedent about the scope and limits of parental rights. It will also affect the fate of children across this country. 

As Yale law professor Akhil Amar noted more than 30 years ago, an abused child who was abandoned by the state is like a slave left to the mercies of a slave master. 

In 2026, that is not something that anyone should condone anywhere. 

Austin Sarat is the William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Jurisprudence and Political Science at Amherst College.  

Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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