Montgomery County Public Schools spent over $1.5 million of taxpayer money on attorney fees defending decision to prohibit parents from opting their children out of LGBTQ lessons in Mahmoud v. Taylor case

  • Montgomery County Public Schools - md

Incidents

Issues

Defending Education submitted a public records request to Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) for all records of fees and salaries that the district paid to attorneys and law firms specifically pertaining to the Mahmoud v. Taylor case. This case involved MCPS not allowing parents to opt their children out of lessons based on books promoting gender ideology and LGBTQ themes. The school district hired outside attorneys to fight back against efforts from parents who wanted to opt their children out of these lessons. The school district fought this effort until the Supreme Court ruled that schools must allow parents to opt their children out of these types of lessons on religious grounds.

The district provided Defending Education with numerous invoices from the WilmerHale law firm. These records reveal that MCPS paid $1,540,708.02 of taxpayer money in an attempt to deny parents the right to opt their children out of ideologically driven lessons in classrooms. MCPS notably redacted the descriptions for how the attorneys exactly spent their time working on the case. Defending Education redacted specific names of individuals, as well as contact information for the law firm.

The following are the dates and costs of each invoice from WilmerHale to MCPS:

  • Invoice 1
    • January 10, 2023
    • $150,801.67
  • Invoice 2
    • May 3, 2023
    • $1,297.34
  • Invoice 3
    • May 3, 2023
    • $511.50
  • Invoice 4
    • May 4, 2023
    • $1,252.10
  • Invoice 5
    • July 20, 2023
    • $78,488.10
  • Invoice 6
    • August 8, 2023
    • $106,351.85
  • Invoice 7
    • September 8, 2023
    • $188.25
  • Invoice 8
    • September 12, 2023
    • $136,784.93
  • Invoice 9
    • October 6, 2023
    • $58,399.09
  • Invoice 10
    • October 6, 2023
    • $5,754.79
  • Invoice 11
    • November 8, 2023
    • $122,490.15
  • Invoice 12
    • January 12, 2024
    • $108,368.68
  • Invoice 13
    • March 13, 2024
    • $2,259.66
  • Invoice 14
    • July 31, 2024
    • $60,942.70
  • Invoice 15
    • August 27, 2024
    • $134,263.90
  • Invoice 16
    • September 25, 2024
    • $8,869.50
  • Invoice 17
    • October 17, 2024
    • $91,713.14
  • Invoice 18
    • November 12, 2024
    • $42,867.57
  • Invoice 19
    • November 12, 2024
    • $73,372.20
  • Invoice 20
    • November 12, 2024
    • $1,215.00
  • Invoice 21
    • November 19, 2024
    • $13,837.50
  • Invoice 22
    • November 19, 2024
    • $31,943.10
  • Invoice 23
    • December 5, 2024
    • $49,754.30
  • Invoice 24
    • January 14, 2025
    • $34,652.34
  • Invoice 25
    • June 27, 2025
    • $1,404.71
  • Invoice 26
    • June 27, 2025
    • $41,176.97
  • Invoice 27
    • June 27, 2025
    • $6,657.42
  • Invoice 28
    • September 16, 2025
    • $17,732.77
  • Invoice 29
    • October 16, 2025
    • $13,940.00
  • Invoice 30
    • November 10, 2025
    • $20,383.77
  • Invoice 31
    • December 4, 2025
    • $36,833.78
  • Invoice 32
    • January 13, 2026
    • $72,560.28
  • Invoice 33
    • May 5, 2026
    • $3,926.70
  • Invoice 34
    • May 5, 2026
    • $6,591.91
  • Invoice 35
    • May 5, 2026
    • $1,510.45
  • Invoice 36
    • May 12, 2026
    • $1,609.90
MCPS InvoicesDownload