(The Orange County Register via AP)
A coalition of 17 states, five Republican senators, and dozens of organizations and individuals filed 12 friend-of-the-court briefs this week urging the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to uphold a ruling blocking California’s school gender-identity policies.
The briefs were filed in Mirabelli v. Bonta, a case challenging California policies that generally allow students to adopt a different gender identity, name, or pronouns at school without parental consent while prohibiting school officials from informing parents without the student’s consent.
In December, U.S. District Judge Roger Benitez issued a class-wide permanent injunction blocking enforcement of the policies.
A panel of the 9th Circuit stayed the injunction after California appealed. In March, however, the Supreme Court vacated the stay as it applied to parents, finding they were likely to succeed on claims that the policies violate their constitutional rights by excluding them from decisions involving their children’s upbringing and mental health.
The high court also found that parents with religious objections were likely to prevail on their First Amendment free-exercise claim.
“The Supreme Court already told California that its gender secrecy policy cannot stand,” Peter Breen, executive vice president and head of litigation at the Thomas More Society, which represents the plaintiffs, said in a news release. “Now dozens of states, sitting members of Congress, physicians, and legal scholars are echoing the same message.
“California should stop fighting a battle it has already lost and let parents back into their children’s lives.”
Florida and Idaho led the states’ brief, joined by Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Mississippi, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, and West Virginia.
The states argued that parents’ authority over their children is a fundamental liberty interest and that states have an interest in protecting that authority.
Republican Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas, Mike Lee of Utah, Kevin Cramer of North Dakota, Roger Marshall of Kansas, and Jim Banks of Indiana filed a separate brief.
They traced parental rights through common law, the nation’s founding, and Supreme Court precedent, arguing that schools must notify parents about consequential decisions involving their children.
Filers included an Advancing American Freedom-led coalition comprising more than 70 organizations and current and former elected officials.
Other briefs came from three legal scholars; the American College of Pediatricians; America First Policy Institute fellow Jennifer Bauwens; the Manhattan Institute, Defending Education, and Leor Sapir; the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty; the Christian Educators Association International; Truth in Education; and the Child & Parental Rights Campaign and Our Duty USA.
Their briefs addressed parental consent, religious exercise, teachers’ responsibilities, and the asserted clinical implications of socially transitioning children at school.
Another brief came from Tammy Fournier, a Wisconsin resident who said her daughter’s school district told the family it would use a male name and pronouns for the child despite Fournier’s objections, prompting Fournier to withdraw her daughter from the district.
Fournier said her daughter’s mental health improved after leaving the district. A Wisconsin court later barred the district from using a name or pronouns inconsistent with a student’s sex without parental consent.
“Twelve amicus briefs — from sitting senators and state attorneys general to pediatricians and constitutional scholars, joined by parents who lived through what this policy did to their own families — all converge on the same point,” Paul M. Jonna, special counsel for the Thomas More Society and partner at LiMandri & Jonna LLP, said in the release. “And it is the point the Supreme Court already made in March, when it restored the injunction and held that California’s policies likely will not survive the strict scrutiny that is required.
“Parents, not school bureaucrats, have the right to raise their children and to direct their religious upbringing.
“That means a school may not facilitate a child’s gender transition without their knowledge and consent. The Supreme Court’s word on the Constitution is final for every court below, and we are confident the Ninth Circuit will treat it that way.”
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