SCOTUS rules California schools can't keep students' gender transition secret from parents

The Supreme Court on Monday blocked California’s policies in schools that allow teachers to keep students’ gender transitions secret from their parents. The justices sided with parents who brought the case forward 6-3. 

The unsigned opinion states, "We conclude that the parents who seek religious exemptions are likely to succeed on the merits of their Free Exercise Clause claim." The policies, the justices said, "substantially interfere with the 'right of parents to guide the religious development of their children.’"

They later wrote, "the intrusion on parents’ free exercise rights here—unconsented facilitation of a child’s gender transition—is greater than the introduction of LGBTQ storybooks we considered sufficient to trigger strict scrutiny in Mahmoud."

The state argued that the policies "advance a compelling interest in student safety and privacy. But those policies cut out the primary protectors of children’s best interests: their parents," the court stated. 

The court also said that "The same is true for the subclass of parents who object to those policies on due process grounds. Under long-established precedent, parents—not the State—have primary authority with respect to 'the upbringing and education of children." They wrote that the precedent set by prior cases protects the "right not to be shut out of participation in decisions regarding their children’s mental health." 

"Gender dysphoria is a condition that has an important bearing on a child’s mental health, but when a child exhibits symptoms of gender dysphoria at school, California’s policies conceal that information from parents and facilitate a degree of gender transitioning during school hours. These policies likely violate parents’ rights to direct the upbringing and education of their children."

California in 2024 banned school districts from requiring that staff members notify a parent about their child’s gender transition at school. A district court judge ruled in December that parents have a right to be informed of such matters, while the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals paused that order while the case proceeded. The Supreme Court vacated the appeals court’s ruling.