Parental Rights Amendment

The right of parents to direct the upbringing and education of their children is presently a fundamental but implied right guaranteed by the United States Constitution. Yet one of the main reasons that parental rights are in danger today is due to their status as implied rights. That's because the meaning of an implied right is never entirely stable. Since parental rights are implied rights, the Court is free to redefine their meaning whenever it wishes. With international law poised to reposition parental rights into mere responsibilities, essentially robbing parents of their rightful place in a child’s life, the parental role and child-parent relationship is more endangered than ever before.

Though they seem effective on the surface, both state constitutional amendments and state laws protecting parental rights are insufficient to fully protect the right of parents to raise their children, for the simple reason that the US Constitution places treaties in a superior position in relation to state laws and constitutions. Additionally, the federal courts can undo any state level effort.

However, if the Parental Rights Amendment passes successfully, the right of parents to raise their children will become an explicit right and receive the highest protection in the federal courts. As an explicit right placed within the black-and-white text of the Constitution, the right of parents to raise their children will be protected by the federal courts as a fundamental right. This will place parental rights in an undeniably superior position to any treaty obligation entered into by the United States—overcoming the threat of international law, and guaranteeing the long-term protection and preservation of parental rights.

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