SCOTUS Declines To Hear Appeal Of Catholic Couple Whose Transgender Teen Was Removed From Their Custody

by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) – The US Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear the appeal of a Catholic couple who lost custody of their 16-year-old son after he went against his parent’s religious beliefs and began identifying as a girl, USA Today reports.  Mary and Jeremy Cox of Anderson, Indiana, filed their appeal to the Supreme Court after a two-year-long fight against the state’s removal of their son, who is now no longer a minor.

According to court records, the Coxs’ son was removed after he began exhibiting a severe eating disorder: the state determined the boy’s condition was connected to his parents’ religious beliefs and consequent refusal to accept his new gender identity as a girl.

The Coxs filed suit, and when the case reached the Indiana Court of Appeals, their lawyers argued: “With increasing frequency, governments run roughshod over parents’ religious beliefs on gender identity, including removing children from parents, favoring certain beliefs in divorce custody disputes, and preventing adoptions. These cases are sure to proliferate.”

In its defense, the state argued that Indiana law allows government intervention in “a variety of situations in which even well-intentioned parents find themselves unable to prevent serious harm,” USA Today said. “The state asserted the child was not removed because of his parents’ religious beliefs but because of his severe medical condition,” the state insisted.

The Indiana appeals court sided with the state, asserting in its ruling: “The Parents have the right to exercise their religious beliefs but they do not have the right to exercise them in a manner that causes physical or emotional harm to Child.”

The US Supreme Court made no comment or explanation in declining the Coxs’ appeal, USA Today reports.

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