An Indiana couple is asking the Supreme Court to hold the state accountable after their child was removed from their home after they were accused of improper pronoun use.
Mary and Jeremy Cox, who are devout Catholics, insist the Indiana Department of Child Services had no right to remove the teen after an investigation found they had not been abusing the child.
Lori Windham, senior counsel at Becket, has argued state courts allowed Indiana to keep the child away from home because of the parents’s religious beliefs.
Windham told Fox News Digital: “Keeping a child away from loving parents because of their religious beliefs – even when the state admits there was no abuse or neglect – is wrong and it’s against the law.
“The Court should take this case and make clear that other states can’t take children away because of ideological disagreements.”
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In 2021, the Indiana Department for Child Services began investigating the Coxes over reports they had been refusing to refer to their child by her preferred pronouns.
The teen was sent to a “gender-affirming” home during the investigation but was barred from living with the couple despite state officials concluding abuse claims were unsubstantiated.
In the first trial hearing of the case, Indiana officials said the child “should be in a home where she is accepted for who she is.
They argued interactions between the teen and the Coxes should be limited to a few hours a week, and the couple should not be allowed to discuss their beliefs on gender identity with the child.
The Department has declined to comment on the story stating that “DCS does not comment on ongoing litigation.”
In a statement to the press, Mary and Jeremy Cox said: “This is what every parent is afraid of.
“We love our son and wanted to care for him, but the state of Indiana robbed us of that opportunity by taking him from our home and banning us from speaking to him about gender.
“We are hopeful that the Justices will take our case and protect other parents from having to endure the nightmare we did.”
