ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Sarah Medina Camiscoli

Sarah Medina Camiscoli is an Assistant Professor of Law at Rutgers University. She writes at the intersection of constitutional law, education law, and youth social movements.

POSTS BY Sarah Medina Camiscoli

11 July 2025

Laboratories of Authoritarianism

In Mahmoud v. Taylor, the U.S. Supreme Court expanded the 1st Amendment Free Exercise Clause to grant conservative religious parents a constitutional right to remove their children from any classroom where a teacher includes LGBTQAI+ people in the curriculum. In effect, the Court has allowed public schools to discourage mutual tolerance, parents to opt out of Equal Protection, and fringe legal strategists to continue to use children’s constitutional rights as a test case for authoritarianism. In doing so, the erosion of children’s rights becomes the foundation upon which other rights are eroded. Continue reading >>