To Parent or Not to Parent: How Far Do Parental Rights Extend?

American citizens have rights under the United States Constitution. However, not all rights appear in the written text of the Constitution. These rights are called fundamental rights, and they receive protection from constitutional amendments. Parental rights constitute a fundamental right protected by the Substantive Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. However, landmark cases discussing parental rights leave ambiguity as to how far this fundamental right extends. The circuit split between the Third and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in Gruenke v. Seip and Fields v. Palmdale, respectively, demonstrates this ambiguity. Both decisions rely on Supreme Court precedent but come to different conclusions as to the extent of parental rights in public schools. In order to protect this fundamental right, it is necessary to resolve this circuit split and present a solution that would properly define this fundamental right since the Supreme Court has yet to do so. Furthermore, the solution would include the application of a fundamental right standard given by the Supreme Court in Obergefell v. Hodges. Such a fundamental right is essential to define and protect for the sake of parents as well as their children.