A startling ruling from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in California has endorsed the idea of religious discrimination, and now the Supreme Court is being asked to step it.
It is First Liberty Institute that is making the request on behalf of three California families who were excluded from a state program “because they chose religious material to homeschool their own children.”
“The Ninth Circuit declared the homes of these parents to be ‘public school programs’ in order to justify the state’s religious discrimination,” explained Hiram Sasser, of First Liberty Institute. “Parents should not be punished for choosing quality religious curriculum meeting the state’s standard that they teach to their own children in their own home just because it’s religious.”
The lawyers explained that some of California’s tuition-free charter schools offer “homeschool academy” or “independent study” programs that families may choose as an alternative to traditional classroom-based instruction.
In those programs, families receive access to state funds they can use to purchase curricula, enrichment materials, and extracurricular activities. The parents choose their own curriculum and teach their own children at home—but they can’t select a religious curriculum, even if they purchase it with their own funds, and their children’s work samples are rejected if they include religious wording or derive from materials created by religious publishers.
The district court and the Ninth Circuit actually endorsed those discriminatory practices based on religion.
We’re asking the U.S. Supreme Court to tell California it can’t discriminate against homeschool families who want to use religious curriculum. pic.twitter.com/SBHirCCVJs
— First Liberty Institute (@firstliberty_) August 20, 2026
“Excluding parents from educational opportunities for their children solely because of religion isn’t just a textbook constitutional violation,” said Allyson Ho, of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP, which also is on the case. “It’s a real-world harm that falls most heavily on those least able to bear it like low-income parents, children with disabilities, and military families.”
The petition explains, “California’s policy singles out parents who wish to give their children a faith-based education and excludes them from homeschooling benefits and support extended to other California families. That’s an open-and-shut Free Exercise violation…As three Members of this Court recently warned, the Ninth Circuit has ‘significantly misunderstood’ this Court’s Free Exercise precedents and needs a ‘general course correction.’ Mirabelli v. Bonta, 607 U.S. 492, 501 (2026) (Barrett, J., concurring).
“The decision below provides a much-needed opportunity to do just that and ensure that parents who most need educational alternatives for their children aren’t impermissibly denied those opportunities in violation of the Constitution’s religious liberty guarantees ” the legal team charged.
