Texas Parental Rights Amendment Threatens to Invalidate Child Abuse Laws
During oral arguments in a child abuse case, some Texas Supreme Court justices seemed open to the possibility that the amendment protected parental violence against children.
The Texas Supreme Court is set to decide a major child abuse case that could affect when the state can legally protect children from violence by their parents.
The case, In re Interest of K.N., K.L., K.L., and K.L., began in 2022 as an effort by the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services to provide services — and later to terminate parental rights — following credible reports of child abuse and neglect against four children. But during oral arguments in this past December it was clear the stakes of the case had changed: Some justices seemed open to the possibility that a state constitutional amendment enshrining parental rights, which was passed by Texas voters in November 2025, could invalidate Texas’s child abuse laws and require leaving children in abusive homes. The amendment establishes a parent’s “fundamental right to exercise care, custody, and control of the parent’s child, including the right to make decisions concerning the child’s upbringing.”
This case is hardly the only one of its kind. In several jurisdictions across the country, spurred on by potent social movements, courts have shown interest in recognizing parental rights far more absolute than any recognized in constitutional precedent or the common law. These cases — and K.N. in particular — illuminate the dangers of such unlimited parental rights.