{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.budd.senate.gov/2026/09/29/budd-files-amicus-brief-defending-the-rights-of-homeschool-parents-to-choose-religious-based-curriculum/", "Budd Files Amicus Brief Defending the Rights of Homeschool Parents to Choose Religious-Based Curriculum", "2026-09-29", "2026", "2026-09", "Republican", "Senate", "NC", "Ted Budd", "B001305", "www.budd.senate.gov", "budd", "https://www.budd.senate.gov/category/news/press-releases/page/", "scraper", "Washington, D.C. \u2014 U.S. Senator Ted Budd (R-N.C.) filed an amicus brief urging the Supreme Court to reverse the lower court\u2019s decision, which wrongly ruled that homeschool independent-study programs are public school programs. The brief defends homeschooling parents\u2019 rights by reinforcing a common-sense principle: parents are not state actors. It also makes clear that neutral government programs can support parents\u2019 choice of faith-based curriculum while remaining consistent with the Constitution and our nation\u2019s history.\n\nExcerpts from the amicus brief are below, and the full text of the brief can be viewed HERE.\n\n\u201cAs part of California\u2019s publicly funded independent-study programs, parents can teach their own children in their own homes with limited oversight from a private, nonprofit corporation operating a charter school. And subject to general state standards, parents can choose any curriculum they want for their homeschooling\u2014with one exception: religion. That overt discrimination\u2014which Respondents say is required by California\u2019s Blaine Amendment\u2014clearly violates the Constitution. And it is preposterous to say, as did the Ninth Circuit, that homeschooling parents are actually state actors.\n\n\u201cThis Court has \u201crepeatedly held that a State violates the Free Exercise Clause when it excludes religious observers from otherwise available public benefits\u201d and programs. \u2026\n\n\u201cTo get around that blatant constitutional violation, the Ninth Circuit deemed the homeschool independent-study programs public. In other words, homeschooling parents are state actors. But that\u2019s egregiously wrong. This case presents an easy question: whether parents who teach their own children in their own homes based on curriculum they select speak and act as the government. Both case law and common sense dictate that the answer is no.\u201d\n\nU.S. Senators Jim Banks (R-Ind.), Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Steve Daines (R-Mont.), Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.), Jim Justice (R-W.Va.), John Kennedy (R-La.), James Lankford (R-Okla.), Mike Lee (R-Utah), Roger Marshall (R-Kan.), Pete Ricketts (R-Neb.), Jim Risch (R-Idaho), and Tim Sheehy (R-Mont.) joined in filing the amicus brief.\n\n###", 1, "2026-09-30T10:57:52Z", "2026-09-30T10:59:04Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.budd.senate.gov/2026/09/29/budd-files-amicus-brief-defending-the-rights-of-homeschool-parents-to-choose-religious-based-curriculum/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.402038149535656, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}