The WallBuilders Show - Parental Rights On Trial - with Kelly Shackelford

A state law can tell you nothing about where your minor child is and still call it “policy.” That’s the heart of the parental rights fight we tackle today, and it’s why we’re sounding the alarm for families who care about education transparency, child welfare, and constitutional limits on government power. We connect the dots between the early homeschooling legal battles and the new reality where some leaders openly act as if kids belong to “all of us” instead of their parents.

Kelly Shackelford from First Liberty Institute joins us with a major Supreme Court case out of Washington State. The law generally requires shelters to notify parents when a runaway minor shows up, but it carves out an exception if the child is seeking gender modification and the parent disagrees. We unpack why the lower courts claimed parents lacked standing, why that “wait until someone is harmed” approach is so dangerous, and how a Supreme Court precedent here could reshape parental rights across the entire country.

We also talk about what this looks like in schools right now, including a California case involving gender ideology content, parent notification, and religious exemptions. Along the way, we bring it back to the practical levers listeners control: voter turnout, state ballot initiatives, school board accountability, and the judges confirmed through elections that decide these questions for decades.

If you care about parental rights, religious liberty, and keeping the Constitution real in daily life, listen, share this with a friend, and subscribe. If the conversation helps you, leave a review so more families can find it.

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