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Indiana parents Mary and Jeremy Cox have petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to review their case after their trans-identified child was removed from their home by the Indiana Department of Child Services. The Coxes, devout Christians, faced the removal of their child in June 2021 following disagreements over their child’s gender identity.
This is not an isolated incident. Parents need to be prepared for the state's heavy hand if they do not approve and even celebrate their child when they announce they are "transitioning."
Be informed, not misled.
USA Today reports, "Mary and Jeremy Cox are devout Christians who believe children should be raised based on their sex at birth, and the use of pronouns or names inconsistent with their biological sex is both immoral and harmful."
But the Anderson couple clashed with their teenager, who is a transgender girl. The family's dispute that started with the Indiana Department of Child Services over care of the teen is now the focus of a case that could go before the U.S. Supreme Court.
At issue, according to the Coxes' petition asking the court to take their case, is whether they have the right to raise their children how they see fit — and whether a court order keeping them from talking to their children about their beliefs on sex and gender violates their free speech rights.
The case touches on some of the most controversial issues in Indiana, where conservative lawmakers have passed legislation targeting transgender rights, and LGBTQ+ advocates have turned to the courts to challenge some of those laws. The issue of parental rights has also gained political momentum, particularly among Republicans over the last few years, focusing on issues such as vaccination requirements, school curricula and gender-affirming care for transgender youth.
On Monday, Indiana Family Institution's General Counsel Josh Hershberger filed a Petition asking the United States Supreme Court to review the removal of a child from Indiana parents due to their beliefs about sex and gender.
According to IFI, The Indiana Department of Child Services initiated an investigation of their home because they were not referring to their child (a biological male) with a cross-gender name and pronouns and generally affirming their child’s self-identification as a girl. And DCS made the following argument for removal from their home at the initial hearing:
“We just feel that at this point in time, this child needs to be in a home that’s not going to teach her that trans, like everything about transgender… tell her how she should think and how she should feel. However, she should be in a home where she is accepted for who she is.”
The trial court then removed the child from Mary and Jeremy’s home—and never returned the child to their custody—even after DCS voluntarily dismissed all allegations of neglect and abuse against them (including false allegations that they were using vulgar language and not treating an eating disorder). The trial court also barred Mary and Jeremy from speaking to their own child about the entire topic of sex and gender while placing their child in a home with a specific qualification: that home must verbally affirm the child’s self-identification as a girl contrary to the parent’s religious beliefs and best judgment. The parents were also limited to a few hours of visitation with their child one day a week. The trial court never returned the child to their home, and he aged out of the foster care system while out of their custody.
Despite acknowledging that Mary and Jeremy did not abuse or neglect their child in any way, the Indiana Court of Appeals astonishingly (1) upheld the removal of the child from the parents’ home and (2) determined that the trial court’s orders barring the parents’ religious instruction to their own child in their own home were permissible because their speech was undeserving of heightened protection under the Indiana and federal constitutions.
The Indiana Supreme Court declined to review this case, so the parents are asking the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene on behalf of the bedrock constitutional principles of parental rights, free speech, and the free exercise of religion.
As Mary and Jeremy conclude in their Petition, “No other fit parent should lose custody of their child or face a government muzzle on their deeply held religious beliefs and best judgment. M.C. and J.C. have exhausted every other remedy and are gravely concerned that the state of Indiana will come for their other children. This Court’s intervention is needed.”
Takeaway
The appeal to the US Supreme Court begins with this:
"M.C. and J.C. are devout Christians who believe that God creates each person as immutably male or female and that, based on those beliefs and scientific evidence, raising their children according to their biological sex is best for them."
The Indiana Attorney General’s Office, defending DCS in this case, has requested additional time until February to respond to the Coxes’ petition.
The case’s outcome could have significant implications for parental rights in the United States. The Supreme Court is expected to decide by April whether to take the case. The Supreme Court reviews fewer than 1% of the roughly 10,000 petitions submitted annually.
“The right and responsibility of parents—and not the state—to raise their children according to their beliefs is a biblical, pre-political principle that must be protected in Indiana law,” IFI says, quoting Ephesians 6:4, which reads: “Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.”
Be Informed. Be Discerning. Be Vigilant. Be Engaged. Be Faithful. Be Prayerful.