By Kurt Jensen
WASHINGTON (OSV News) — Jeremy and Mary Cox, Catholic parents in Anderson, Indiana, petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court Feb. 15 to hear their case involving parental rights and a state social service agency's removal of their child in a dispute in their home over the child's gender identity. Any decision on the petition submitted to the high court won't result in the teen — named in court filings as A.C. and identifying as a transgender girl — being returned to the family home because their child is now legally an adult at over age 18. Rather, the Coxes are arguing over their rights over their younger children as well as their decisions about A.C. Their petition for a writ of certiorari, M.C. and J.C. v. Indiana Department of Child Services, was submitted by Becket, a public-interest law firm in Washington, D.C. The Coxes lost custody of the then-16-year-old in 2021 in a directive from the Indiana Department of Child Services alleging the teen was in danger of physical and mental abuse by the Coxes as parents who believe, as the Becket brief states, that children should be raised based on their biological sex. Ultimately, an Indiana court agreed the Coxes were fit parents but upheld the removal of their child. An appeals court upheld the removal. After the Indiana Supreme Court declined to intervene, the Coxes took their appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
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Kurt Jensen writes for OSV News from Washington.