The United States Supreme Court has decided to block a series of California laws that could limit the sharing of information with parents about the gender identity of transgender students in public schools. This ruling marks a victory for parents who challenged these protections on religious and due process grounds.
The emergency request was granted Monday and the decision was made along partisan lines, with all three liberal justices dissenting.
California law contains several provisions, including the right to privacy under the state constitution, which the state said could apply when transgender students object to having their gender identity revealed to their parents or guardians, sometimes out of fear of hostility, rejection or even violence.
This ruling caps more than two years of legal battles in state and federal courts.
In 2023, two Southern California teachers sued the Escondido Union School District in the U.S. District Court of Southern California arguing, “The right of parents to make decisions regarding the care, custody, control, and health care of their children is one of the oldest fundamental liberty interests enjoyed by Americans,” and violating that right with respect to a student’s gender identity can result in serious emotional and physical harm, the lawsuit reads.
Later, two devoutly Catholic couples joined the suit, alleging that their children were expressing themselves as transgender children at school without their parents’ knowledge or consent, violating their religious rights and their right as parents under the due process provision of the 14th Amendment to direct the care of their children.
In December, U.S. District Judge Roger Benitez ruled in favor of the plaintiffs and issued an order blocking these measures. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit stayed Benitez’s ruling on Jan. 5, citing multiple errors in the judge’s analysis.
The supreme court’s ruling has now overturned the appeals court’s ruling.
The Supreme Court must also rule on another case focused on trans youth. On Jan. 13, the high court heard oral arguments in a case involving Lindsay Hecox, a college student from Idaho, and Becky Pepper-Jackson, a 15-year-old high school student. The couple sued over Republican-backed laws in West Virginia and Idaho that barred them from playing women’s sports. Most justices appeared willing to uphold the ban, which could have profound implications for trans rights across American society.
