Forced outing.....

Supreme Court sides with parents in lawsuit over California’s ban on ‘forced outing’ of students

The emergency ruling overrules a temporary stay an appeals court issued.

By Eric He

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Monday that California schools cannot prevent teachers from notifying parents about their child’s gender identity while a lawsuit over the issue plays out.

The court, split along its ideological divide between conservative and liberal members, granted an emergency request from a group of parents and teachers to reverse a decision by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. In that decision, the appeals court temporarily blocked a ruling by a lower court judge, who found that California law violates the rights of teachers and parents by barring teachers from sharing information about a child’s gender transition without the child’s permission. In undoing the 9th Circuit’s intervention, the high court found that parents are likely to prevail in their lawsuit and that California’s policies amount to hiding information about a child’s “gender dysphoria.”

“These policies likely violate parents’ rights to direct the upbringing and education of their children,” the ruling stated.

The court’s three liberal justices dissented. Justice Elena Kagan, in an opinion joined by Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, criticized the conservative majority for rushing to a decision and issuing a “terse, tonally dismissive ruling designed to conclusively resolve this dispute.”

In a response, Justice Amy Coney Barrett — joined by Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Brett Kavanaugh — claimed that they were not being impatient, but rather temporarily allowing parents to take part in “consequential decisions about their child’s mental health and wellbeing” while the case winds through the courts.

The case is rooted in a 2024 California law that prohibits school districts from requiring staff to inform parents about a student’s gender identity without the child’s permission.

The Trump administration in January claimed that the policy violates federal law, threatening to pull federal education dollars to California. Attorney General Rob Bonta has sued to preemptively block the funding threat.

Conservatives were quick to celebrate Monday’s ruling. Corrin Rankin, chair of the state’s Republican Party, said in a statement she was “thrilled the Supreme Court told California Democrats what we all know and believe, that parents are not optional, despite them acting as if they were.”

Paul M. Jonna, an attorney at Thomas More Society, a law firm representing parents who brought forth the lawsuit, called the order a “watershed moment for parental rights in America.”