“…the Constitution is not suspended in times of crisis.” Former US Attorney General William Barr
Parental rights should not be suspended in times of crisis either, yet they were suspended when Governor Edwards, the Louisiana Department of Health, the Louisiana Department of Education, and the Louisiana Legislature usurped parental rights to force masks on children in lieu of an education. Vaccine passports were implemented in New Orleans for children as young as five without any regard to parental rights. Louisiana’s Children’s Code has a beautifully succinct description of the role of the parent which includes that parents have the paramount right to determine which medical interventions and preventive health care the child should undergo, but it was ignored for the last three years – it has no enforcement power.
If passed and ratified, HB152 by Representative Beryl Amedee will enshrine the following language in the Louisiana Constitution for generations to come:
“Section 28. The freedom of a parent in the nurture, education, care, custody, and control of the parent’s child is a fundamental right and shall not be infringed. Any restriction on this right shall be subject to strict scrutiny.”
What does “strict scrutiny” mean? Under U.S. Constitutional law, fundamental rights automatically trigger strict scrutiny. That is, for any law restricting a fundamental right to pass constitutional muster, it must be narrowly tailored to achieve a compelling government interest and must be the least restrictive means of achieving that end. To strengthen the rights of parents, it is essential that this language be added to the constitution to ensure that rights of parents are not suspended during the next pandemic