“To protect the right of parents to direct the upbringing of their children as a fundamental right.”
No CRS summary available for this bill.
This section states congressional findings recognizing the fundamental right of parents to direct the upbringing, education, and health care of their children—citing Supreme Court precedents such as Pierce v. Society of Sisters, Meyer v. Nebraska, Troxel v. Granville, and others—and criticizing certain federal court decisions and government intrusions into parental prerogatives absent abuse or neglect. The section declares the purposes of the Act to protect that parental right under strict scrutiny while acknowledging parents' responsibilities for their children's education, nurture, and upbringing.
This section establishes definitions for purposes of the Act, including— (1) government, to include a branch, department, agency, instrumentality, or official (or person acting under color of law) of the United States, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, or any U.S. territory or possession; (2) parent, as a biological parent, adoptive parent, or individual granted exclusive right and authority over a child's welfare under state law; (3) child, as an individual who has not attained 18 years of age; and (4) substantial burden, as any action that directly or indirectly constrains, inhibits, curtails, or denies parents' rights to direct a child's upbringing, education, or health care (or compels action contrary to those rights), including withholding benefits, assessing penalties or damages, or exclusion from government programs.
This section establishes the liberty of parents to direct the upbringing, education, and health care of their children as a fundamental right and prohibits government from substantially burdening that right absent a compelling governmental interest of the highest order that is the least restrictive means of furthering it. Protected rights include directing the child's education, moral or religious upbringing, and access to and consent over the child's medical records and physical or mental health care decisions. The section states that listed rights are not exhaustive, do not preempt other federal, state, constitutional, or common law protections, and includes exceptions for parental actions causing serious physical injury or ending the child's life; it further authorizes parents to assert violations as claims or defenses in federal or state courts or administrative tribunals under Article III standing rules.
This section authorizes attorney's fees for prevailing parties, other than the United States, in proceedings to enforce the Families’ Rights and Responsibilities Act by (1) adding the Act to the list of covered statutes in civil actions under 42 U.S.C. 1988(b) (i.e., alongside specified civil rights laws, title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993, the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000, title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and others); and (2) amending 5 U.S.C. 504(b)(1)(C) to cover agency adjudications under the Act (in addition to the Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993).
This section applies the Act to all federal laws and their implementation, whether statutory or otherwise and whether adopted before or after enactment. It further provides rules of construction: (1) the Act's protections of parents' fundamental right to direct the upbringing, education, and health care of their children are in addition to protections under existing federal, state, and constitutional law; (2) the Act must be construed in favor of broad protection of those rights; (3) the Act does not authorize any government to burden those rights; and (4) subsequently enacted federal statutory law is subject to the Act unless it explicitly excludes application by reference to the Act.