Supreme Court blocks law against schools outing transgender students to their parents in California

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court cleared the way Monday for California schools to tell parents if their children identify as transgender without getting the student’s consent, granting an emergency appeal from a conservative legal group.

The order is currently blocked by a state law that prohibits automatic parental notification requirements if students change their pronouns or gender expression at school.

The divided decision comes after religious parents and teachers challenged California school policies aimed at preventing schools from sending students home. Two groups of Catholic parents represented by the Thomas More Society say this has led schools to mislead them and secretly facilitate children’s social transition despite their objections.

On the other hand, California said students have a right to privacy regarding their sexual expression, especially if they fear rejection from their families. The state said school policies and state law are intended to balance parental rights.

However, the Supreme Court majority sided with the parents and reinstated a lower court order blocking the law and school policies while the case continued.

“Parents who affirm freedom to exercise have sincerely held religious beliefs about sex and sexuality, and feel a religious obligation to raise their children in accordance with these beliefs,” the majority wrote in an unsigned order. “California’s policies violate these beliefs” and burden the free exercise of religion.

The court’s three liberal justices publicly objected, saying the case was still on its way to lower courts and there was no need to intervene now. “If nothing else,” Justice Elena Kagan wrote, “this Court owes it to a sovereign state to avoid hasty disposal of its policies, if the Court can provide normal procedures. Elimination of state policy is what the Court is doing today.”

Meanwhile, conservative Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas indicated they would have gone further and accepted the teachers’ appeal to lift the restrictions imposed on them.

The Thomas More Society described the decision as “the most important ruling on parental rights in a generation.”

California Governor Gavin Newsom’s office defended the law, saying teachers should focus on teaching, not be required to “be gender police.”

Marissa Saldívar, a spokeswoman for the Democratic governor, said the order “undermines students’ privacy and the ability to learn in a safe and supportive classroom, free of discrimination based on gender identity.”

The Supreme Court has ruled in favor of religious plaintiffs in other recent cases, including allowing parents to withdraw their children from public school classes if they object to storybooks containing LGBTQ+ characters.

California’s order comes months after the court upheld the state’s ban on gender identity-related health care for minors. The justices also appear to be leaning toward allowing states to ban transgender athletes from playing on girls’ sports teams.

Meanwhile, school policies for transgender students have been on the court’s radar in other cases.

The court dismissed another similar case out of Wisconsin in December, but three conservative justices indicated they would have heard the case. Justice Samuel Alito called school politics “an issue of great and growing national importance.”

The justices were considering whether to hear arguments in cases outside states such as Massachusetts and Florida brought by other parents who say schools facilitated social transition without informing them.

Meanwhile, the Trump administration in January found that California policies violated parents’ right to access their children’s educational records. The Department of Justice also filed suit after determining that transgender athletes’ policies in the United States violated federal civil rights law.