In MAGA’s quest to assert the “parental right” to put other people’s children in danger, they have begun claiming that parental rights are fundamental rights protected by the Due Process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

That was actually true — during the heyday of the liberal Supreme Court.

In their Parental Rights Toolkit, the Alliance Defending Tyranny Freedom states that “The U.S. Supreme Court has stated that the due process clause of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution protects parental rights and that they are fundamental rights. However, courts do not consistently protect these rights at the strict level that they deserve.”

As explained in my previous installment on MAGA “parental rights,” I opined that their concept of parental rights has considerable merit – if only they would respect those same fundamental rights when practiced by others. That, of course, they refuse to do. MAGA “parental rights” do not recognize the parental rights of any family whose philosophies differ from MAGA.

What Alliance Defending Tyranny leaves unstated, of course, is that it was their own right wing Supreme Court packing that damaged and undermined the Constitutionally protected parental rights that had existed prior to Troxel v. Granville (2000).

You see, MAGA, when you pack a Supreme Court for the purpose of eliminating the basic rights of others, you inevitably undermine some of your own rights along the way.

ParentalRights.org acknowledges the damage done after Troxel. But the damage is worse than they realize.

True to form, the late Antonin Scalia, in a separate dissent, resorted to his usual tactic of authoring an opinion crafted to do vastly more damage to fundamental rights than necessary to address the case. Scalia makes his open contempt for any Constitutional protections of parental rights clear: “Judicial vindication of “parental rights” under a Constitution that does not even mention them requires (as Justice Kennedy’s opinion rightly points out) not only a judicially crafted definition of parents, but also–unless, as no one believes, the parental rights are to be absolute–judicially approved assessments of “harm to the child” and judicially defined gradations of other persons (grandparents, extended family, adoptive family in an adoption later found to be invalid, long-term guardians, etc.) who may have some claim against the wishes of the parents.”

Remember that Antonin Scalia has, for decades, been put forth as an ideal model Supreme Court nominee by MAGA-aligned organizations. MAGA has sought a Supreme Court packed with Antonin Scalias – a court packed with judges who share Scalia’s open contempt for any judicial protection of parental rights at all.

The listed hate group Family Research Council extols Antonin Scalia as such: “A justice who looks strictly at the text of the statute will not shoehorn “gender identity” into “sex”—and that is the type of justice we should have replacing the late Justice Scalia. It will be critical to have a justice of the same mold…” There they are, demanding the appointment of more judges who are as hostile to basic rights as was Antonin Scalia. What they will get are judges who likewise share his hostility to basic parental rights.

In Troxel, MAGA judge uncle Clarence Thomas does, in fact, take a strong stand in favor of parental rights. But his stance is extremely self-serving and selective, as he relies upon the very concept of substantive due process that he now rails against with a white-hot passion.

The pro-tyranny organization Claremont Institute agrees with Thomas’ advocacy of the wholesale elimination of our basic rights and liberties. And, in typical MAGA fashion, they describe this near-total elimination of our basic rights as “Restoring the Constitution.”

When MAGA talks about “restoring the Constitution,” it’s code for the total elimination of our most basic rights and liberties.

Mark my words: A MAGA Supreme Court would result in the total and complete elimination of parental rights despite uncle Clarence Thomas’ superficial endorsement of them – especially the rights of parents who don’t share their brutal, abusive worldview.