'I'm Not Understanding Why It's Not Feasible': Brett Kavanaugh Grills Lawyer In LGBTQ Books In School Case

Justice Brett Kavanaugh questions attorneys during Oral Arguments for Mahmoud v. Taylor, a case involving LGBTQ+ books in schools.

Transcript

00:00each about different matters. I'm not understanding why it's not feasible.

00:05The county had an opt-out, you said. Every other school board in the country has opt-outs for all

00:11sorts of things. The county has opt-outs for all sorts of things. The other Maryland counties have

00:16opt-outs for all sorts of things. And yet for this one thing, they changed in mid-year and say

00:24no more opt-outs. I'm just not understanding feasibility. So again, I think what's in the

00:29record is that with respect to these books as they were deployed in the classroom, there was high

00:34absenteeism in some schools. For example, dozens of students being opted out in, I think Mr. Baxter

00:39said the average size of an elementary school in Montgomery County is 700 students. So each grade

00:44is 125. If you have dozens of students walking out, making arrangements for those students to have

00:50adequate space and supervision and alternative instruction I think is infeasible. But they do it

00:56for all sorts of other opt-outs. They don't do it for all sorts of other opt-outs. There's a limited

01:00universe of things that students can opt out from. The Family Life and Healthy Sexuality curriculum

01:05stands alone. It is mandated by the state. It is something where you are able to predict precisely

01:10when the curriculum is going to be deployed. There's a four... It's the most similar substantively

01:15to what we have here. And there's an opt-out allowed there. I guess I'm not understanding why

01:19Montgomery County School Board stands alone. I think in the country, you can tell me if there's another

01:25school board that's done something like this. I don't... I apologize. Both the kind of books that are

01:33being used and prohibiting opt-outs. And I guess I'm just not understanding. The whole goal, I think,

01:42of some of our religion precedents is to look for the win-win. To look for the situation where you can

01:49respect the religious beliefs and accommodate the religious beliefs while the state or city

01:55or whatever it may be can pursue its goals. And here, they're not asking you to change what's

02:01taught in the classroom. They're not asking you to change that at all. A lot of the rhetoric suggests

02:06that they might have... that they were trying to do that, but that's not what they're trying to do.

02:11They're only seeking to be able to walk out so that they don't have to... the parents don't have their

02:18children exposed to these things that are contrary to their own beliefs. I understand,

02:23Your Honor. And there may well be circumstances where a school can... or a school district can

02:27engineer the win-win. Montgomery County Schools tried to accomplish an educational goal of introducing

02:32these books for a particular purpose. They then attempted to accommodate religious

02:36opt-outs in the school, and they weren't able to... Mr. Schoenfeld, what is that purpose?