The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has handed down a ruling (pdf) that every parent who cares about their rights needs to consider. I’ll snip a few key points here, but take the time to read the whole ruling (including some of the questions asked, which you can also read at WND’s site).

We agree, and hold that there is no fundamental right of parents to be the exclusive provider of information regarding sexual matters to their children, either independent of their right to direct the upbringing and education of their children or encompassed by it. We also hold that parents have no due process or privacy right to override the determinations of public schools as to the information to which their children will be exposed while enrolled as students.

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It further concluded that the fundamental right to direct the upbringing and education of one’s children does not encompass the right “to control the upbringing of their children by introducing them to matters of and relating to sex in accordance with their personal and religious values and beliefs.”

Writing Right has this to add:

Let me tell you this, as a person who works with children and parents in the counseling field, if I had a client who was a child who was 5-8 years old who knew the answers to these questions, I would seriously consider they had been sexually abused by some pervert who can’t control his evil sexual desires. Children who are subjected to these questions have in my not so humble opinion, just been sexually abused by the idiots who gave them these questions to answer in the first place.

Spunky Homeschool notes:

It’s not suprising that our schools are taking on more and more parental responsibility what’s so sad is that more and more parents are just letting it happen.

Pardon My English is similarly outraged, and summarizes this way:

“Hey little girl, do you think about sex a lot?”

How would you like an adult posing this question to your child? To be sure, any adult who asked this question to a seven-year-old would be, at the least a pervert and likely a sex offender: If having a strange adult ask a seven-year-old about whether or not they think about sex isn’t a sex offense, it sure as hell should be. Now, how would you like it if this adult were a teacher of administrator? Well these are exactly the type of questions school administrators and teachers in the Palmdale, California school district are allowing to be asked of seven-year-olds on paper and the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco seems to think this is just fine.

Focus on the Family called Wednesday’s ruling “one of the most abhorrent examples of judicial tyranny in American history.”

Maybe the idea of creating a 12th Circuit Court of Appeals, splitting up these judges whose rulings fly in the face of common sense and mixing them in with some newly appointed Constitution-respecting judges, isn’t such a bad one.

A Republican proposal to split the liberal, San Francisco-based Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has made its way into a must-pass House budget reconciliation bill, much to Democrats’ dismay.

The Ninth Circuit covers nine states and is the largest of all U.S. circuit courts. Nicknamed the “Ninth Circus” by conservative critics, it is the same court that ruled the Pledge of Allegiance was unconstitutional because of the phrase “under God.”

The justification for doing this?

The Ninth Circuit, which covers nine states, is considered the largest of all U.S. Circuit Courts. It is larger than the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th , 5th , 6th , 7th , and 11th Circuits combined. The Ninth Circuit contains the fastest growing states in the U.S.

According to the Census Bureau, by 2010, the population of the states the Ninth Circuit covers will grow to over 63 million.

The court’s increasing caseload negatively impacts the judges’ ability to stay on top of legal developments, Murkowski said. It handles more cases than any other Circuit. Last year alone, 14,272 cases were filed.

The Ninth Circuit is the only circuit in which all judges do not review panel decisions, and it allows the court to be comprised of 11 members compared to the full 28 members. Every other Circuit requires a review by its full panel, thus resulting in the need for only six members of the 28 to have a majority opinion, Murkowski added.

As it stands now, the average time to get a final disposition of an appellate case in the Ninth Circuit is about five months longer than the national average.

Bill Brewer reacts this way:

In the absence of those countervailing institutions, the “right to choose” in the U.S. is now grounded in the same concept of “compelling state interest” that forces abortion in other countries. Such interests are superficially antithetical, but fundamentally identical in their denial of family sovereignty.

Barbara: “While it’s indoctrinating the students unfairly, if they pray in school, or say the Pledge of Allegiance, the school has the right to teach the children about sex. How times have changed!”

Quincy has an observation, which underscores the importance of the current Supreme Court vacancy being filled with an originalist judge.

With multiple Constitutional questions still unanswered, the dismissal of this case is an irresponsible move by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. It is another victory for the rights of the state over the rights of individual parents, and yet another reason to keep children away from the public school system. I sincerely hope that this is not the final word on the case.

Billy Dickson rants:

Now this court seem to be saying parents give up their rights when their children enter the school house. Perhaps that court was reading the laws of Cuba not America. Don’t children belong to their parents not the state in America

Mark Rose excerpts the Focus on the Family CitizenLink release.

In a shocking act of judicial tyranny, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco today stripped away all parental oversight concerning what their children are taught in public school sex-education classes.

And Mark provides further analysis here.

Monroe, however, defends the ruling.

However, the court was trying to decide if the actions were in violation to the substantive due process protections of the 14th Amendment. It is important to note that many conservatives, including Robert Bork in his book The Tempting of America, are critical of the whole notion of substantive due process. Thus, the school district’s actions were objectionable, but were arguably not actionable under the U.S. Constitution.

Sofyst:

Let us tell our five-year old about penises and orgasms but never think of mentioning that horrid three letter word, ‘God’. LORD forbid the child be taught something moral…what he really needs is a porno.

Others taking note: Woody’s Blog, Rhett Smith, Two-Sheds Gomer and Danny Carlton.

UPDATE: Taking a Sunday Drive. And hanging out with the Political Teen. And Kevin’s Carnival. And Mudville.

UPDATE: Kevin McCullough elaborates a bit on his WND column.

Besides the fact that I may want to keep my first grader somewhat innocent and protected from such sexual material, and as a parent I don’t believe a court has any business putting such thoughts into the heads of first graders. It is also important to point out - that this is now the law of the land and can not be stopped unless or until an appeal is eventually heard either by the full 9th Circuit Court, or the U.S. Supreme Court.

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Anyone think we need to speed up the demand on our Senators to approve Judge Alito?

UPDATE 11/18/2005: The House wants the 9th Circuit to reconsider (via Stop the ACLU and Right on the Right, by way of Preston).