The Supreme Court has blocked a California law that prohibited parental notification of parents of their students’ gender identity at school. Under California policy, parents were not permitted to receive any information about their student’s gender identity without the student’s permission. The ruling was 6-3, with the court’s six conservative judges siding with the parents while the three liberal judges Justices Ketanji Brown Jackson, Elena Kagan, and Sonia Sotomayor ruled against. Kagan wrote a dissent with Jackson joining against the ruling.

In the California case, Mirabelli v. Bonta, a district court temporarily blocked schools from keeping a student’s gender identity at school private or from changing names and pronouns that violate parents’ religious beliefs. The ruling was in response to a 2023 dispute after two teachers sued the school district, seeking an exemption from the district’s policies regarding gender and pronouns. Parents later joined the suit, stating their children had been socially transitioned at school without their knowledge.

The Supreme Court concluded that religious parents with beliefs against transgenderism “are likely to succeed on the merits of their Free Exercise Clause claim.” “California policies likely trigger strict scrutiny under that provision because they substantially interfere with the ‘right of parents to guide the religious development of their children.’” The ruling did not comment on the teachers’ objections to the California law, although Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito indicated that they would have granted the teachers’ request as well.

The Thomas More Society, the legal group representing the parents and teachers, praised the ruling, calling it the “most significant parental rights ruling in a generation.” “This is a watershed moment for parental rights in America. The Supreme Court has told California and every state in the nation in no uncertain terms: you cannot secretly transition a child behind a parent’s back,” ,” said Thomas More Society special counsel Paul M. Jonna. “The Court’s landmark reaffirmation of substantive due process, its vindication of religious liberty, and its approval of class-wide relief together set a historic precedent that will dismantle secret gender transition policies across the country.”

Conservatives praised the decision on X. “HUGE,” wrote conservative watchdog Libs of TikTok. “The Supreme Court just BLOCKED a California law that barred schools from notifying parents if their children identify as transgender. Gavin Newscum wants schools to groom your kids. The Supreme Court just stopped it. MASSIVE WIN FOR SANITY. MASSIVE L FOR GROOMERS.” “California wants to transition children in secret, keeping parents in the dark,” wrote Babylon Bee’s Seth Dillon. “It looks like the Supreme Court may have just put an end to that insanity.”