Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen, along with 21 other state attorneys general, has filed a brief urging the U.S. Supreme Court to review a case challenging a Massachusetts school district’s policy on student “social transitioning” without parental consent.
The case, Foote v. Ludlow School Committee, involves Ludlow Public Schools and parents Stephen Foote and Marissa Silvestri. The parents allege that the district allowed school staff to promote social transitioning for their two children—such as using new names and pronouns—without their knowledge or approval. According to the complaint, a school counselor held private discussions with the students and suggested they were unsafe with their parents.
Attorney General Knudsen’s brief contends that the First Circuit Court of Appeals erred when it upheld the lower court’s ruling in favor of the school in 2023. The brief argues that the court wrongly concluded that parental rights are diminished once children attend public schools and that schools may make decisions, including secret ones, without parental consent.
“Ludlow’s actions should trigger alarm bells. These secret acts, which contravened the parents’ express instructions, violated the constitutionally sacrosanct parent-child relationship,” Knudsen wrote. “Courts must evaluate whether a particular decision is rooted in parental or state power. The First Circuit’s conclusion that the decision to socially transition B.F. was well-grounded in state power was fundamentally wrong.”
The coalition’s brief emphasizes that parents have long-recognized constitutional rights to direct the care, upbringing, and education of their children, and that schools are obligated to support—not override—parental decision-making. The attorneys general argue that policies like Ludlow’s set a precedent that could undermine parental authority and erode trust between families and schools.
States joining Montana in the brief include West Virginia, Florida, Alabama, Alaska, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah, Virginia, and Guam.
The Supreme Court has not yet indicated whether it will take up the case.