Remember Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” law?

The unconstitutionally vague law imposed such unclear restrictions on teachers who speak about sexual orientation or gender identity that many feared they could be fired merely for mentioning their spouses. Eventually, Florida agreed to a settlement which affirmed its right to do things like excluding Harvey Milk from the state history curriculum, but which also clarified that teachers may refer to the concept of being gay.

Now, however, the Supreme Court will hear a case that could impose a regime similar to Florida’s original Don’t Say Gay law on every public school in the country. The plaintiffs in Mahmoud v. Taylor — a group of Muslim and Christian parents — don’t specifically ask the justices to ban discussions of homosexuality or gender identity from classrooms. Instead, they seek a right to be notified if their children are about to be taught from certain books they claim contain LGBTQ themes, as well as an opportunity to opt those children out of the lessons.

To grant this request, they want the Court to embrace a legal rule that would place such heavy obligations on teachers who discuss these topics that it is unclear whether they would practically be able to do so. Furthermore, even if public schools tried to comply with these disclosure requirements, they are so burdensome that doing so would likely be impossible.

The case arises out of a Maryland school district’s decision to approve a handful of books with LGBTQ themes for use in public school classrooms. While the plaintiffs and the school district appear to agree that some books that focus on queer characters were approved for some purpose, they can’t seem to agree on any of the other facts of the case.

The plaintiffs, who are represented by the Becket Fund, an influential legal organization that often represents conservative Catholic causes, list seven books in their brief that they claim the school district approved for classroom use (though the brief acknowledges that two were later withdrawn). The district’s brief, by contrast, claims that only five books are at issue. Only three books appear on both parties’ lists.

Indeed, as a federal appeals court that heard this case complained, the case record contains no information “about how any teacher or school employee has actually used any of the Storybooks in the Parents’ children’s classrooms, how often the Storybooks are actually being used, what any child has been taught in conjunction with their use, or what conversations have ensued about their themes.”

It is quite odd that the highest Court in the nation decided to weigh in on this case before the lower courts have even determined what the case is actually about, especially given it’s not even clear that these books have been used in any classroom instruction whatsoever.

The Court’s decision to prematurely take up the Mahmoud case, however, is consistent with the current crop of justices’ past behavior, which has favored religious — especially Christian — causes.

Just one month after Justice Amy Coney Barrett’s confirmation gave the Republican Party a 6-3 majority on the Supreme Court, five of the Court’s Republicans handed down a sweeping decision that revolutionized the Court’s approach to religion, giving individuals who object to laws on religious grounds a broad new right to ignore those laws. And that’s just

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