Supreme Court asked to block California law against outing trans students
Source: Politico
01/08/2026 06:26 PM EST Updated: 01/08/2026 09:07 PM EST
A Catholic legal group is asking the Supreme Court to block enforcement of a California law that protects transgender students from being outed to their parents.
An emergency appeal filed Thursday asks the high court to reinstate a judge’s ruling late last year that allowed parents with religious objections to opt out of the law’s provisions that require public school teachers not to tell parents if a child asks to use different pronouns or adopt a different gender identity. “Parents only relinquish authority needed for the school to carry out its ‘educational mission’... they do not delegate the authority to make decisions regarding whether their child is a boy or a girl,” attorneys from the Thomas More Society wrote in the new appeal.
The California law, which Gov. Gavin Newsom signed in 2024 and went into effect a year ago, covers not only disclosure about a student’s gender identity but also their sexual orientation. However, the latter does not appear to be at issue in the case.
The statute was passed after several school districts in the state issued what critics called “forced outing” policies requiring teachers to notify parents if students sought to change their name, pronouns or gender identity. The law does allow disclosures about a student’s gender identity in “compelling” circumstances, but critics contend that exception is too vague.
Read more: https://www.politico.com/news/2026/01/08/california-law-transgender-students-supreme-court-00717924
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