National News
Supremes being asked to rule on homeschool persecution

By Bob Unruh – WND
The U.S. Supreme Court will be asked to protect a Germany homeschooling family from the persecution members would face if they are returned to their home country, according to officials with the Home School Legal Defense Association.

The organization has confirmed that it will appeal to the high court in the case involving the Romeike family. They fled to the United States from Germany several years ago to escape the persecution the government there imposes on homeschooling families, and a judge granted them asylum. However, the Obama administration objected to allowing them to remain in the U.S., and won an appeals court reversal of that asylum ruling. The HSLDA has been working with the family on the case. …

The DOJ cited international court rulings, noting: “The European Court of Human Rights has held that parents could not refuse the right to education of a child on the basis of the parents’ convictions, because the child has an independent right to education.”

Such rulings in Europe have been used to argue that it is the state that makes decisions about education for children, not parents.

[Michael] Farris [founder and chairman of HSLDA] had warned that the court’s position has far-reaching consequences.

“When the United States government says that homeschooling is a mutable choice, it is saying that a government can legitimately coerce you to change this choice,” Farris said. “In other words, you have no protected right to choose what type of education your children will receive. We should understand that in these arguments, something very concerning is being said about the liberties of all Americans.”
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