{"id":31105,"date":"2026-03-09T13:25:39","date_gmt":"2026-03-09T17:25:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/?p=31105"},"modified":"2026-03-09T13:25:39","modified_gmt":"2026-03-09T17:25:39","slug":"supreme-court-backs-parents-in-parental-notification-for-social-transitions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2026\/03\/supreme-court-backs-parents-in-parental-notification-for-social-transitions","title":{"rendered":"Supreme Court Backs Parents in Parental Notification For Social Transitions"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2026\/03\/Court-LGBTQ_credit-Adobe-Stock.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-31108\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2026\/03\/Court-LGBTQ_credit-Adobe-Stock.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"900\" \/><\/a>The Supreme Court has blocked a California law that prohibited parental notification of parents of their students\u2019 gender identity at school. Under California policy, parents were not permitted to receive any information about their student\u2019s gender identity without the student\u2019s permission. The ruling was 6-3, with the court\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n<p>In the California case, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.supremecourt.gov\/opinions\/25pdf\/25a810_b97d.pdf\"><em>Mirabelli v. Bonta<\/em><\/a>, a district court temporarily blocked schools from keeping a student\u2019s gender identity at school private or from changing names and pronouns that violate parents\u2019 religious beliefs. The ruling was in response to a 2023 dispute after two teachers sued the school district, seeking an exemption from the district\u2019s policies regarding gender and pronouns. Parents later joined the suit, stating their children had been socially transitioned at school without their knowledge.<\/p>\n<p>The Supreme Court concluded that religious parents with beliefs against transgenderism \u201care likely to succeed on the merits of their Free Exercise Clause claim.\u201d \u201cCalifornia policies likely trigger strict scrutiny under that provision because they substantially interfere with the &#8216;right of parents to guide the religious development of their children.&#8217;\u201d The ruling did not comment on the teachers\u2019 objections to the California law, although Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito indicated that they would have granted the teachers\u2019 request as well.<\/p>\n<p>The Thomas More Society, the legal group representing the parents and teachers, praised the ruling, calling it the \u201cmost significant parental rights ruling in a generation.\u201d \u201cThis 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\u2019s back,\u201d ,\u201d\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.thomasmoresociety.org\/news\/u-s-supreme-court-delivers-historic-groundbreaking-victory-for-parental-rights-dismantles-californias-secret-gender-transition-regime\">said<\/a>\u00a0Thomas More Society special counsel Paul M. Jonna. \u201cThe Court\u2019s 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.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Conservatives praised the decision on X. \u201cHUGE,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/libsoftiktok\/status\/2028660212337385882#:~:text=HUGE%0A%0AThe%20Supreme%20Court%20just%20BLOCKED%20a%20California%20law%20that%20barred%20schools%20from%20notifying%20parents%20if%20their%20children%20identify%20as%20transgender.%0A%0AGavin%20Newscum%20wants%20schools%20to%20groom%20your%20kids.%20The%20Supreme%20Court%20just%20stopped%20it.%0A%0AMASSIVE%20WIN%20FOR%20SANITY.%0A%0AMASSIVE%20L%20FOR%20GROOMERS.\">wrote conservative watchdog Libs of TikTok<\/a>. \u201cThe 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.\u201d \u201cCalifornia wants to transition children in secret, keeping parents in the dark,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/SethDillon\/status\/2028635470234521966\">wrote Babylon Bee\u2019s Seth Dillon<\/a>. \u201cIt looks like the Supreme Court may have just put an end to that insanity.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Supreme Court has blocked a California law that prohibited parental notification of parents of their students\u2019 gender identity at school. Under California policy, parents were not permitted to receive any information about their student\u2019s gender identity without the student\u2019s permission. The ruling was 6-3, with the court\u2019s six conservative judges siding with the parents&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":516,"featured_media":31108,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31105","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Supreme Court Backs Parents in Parental Notification For Social Transitions<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"SCOTUS blocks CA policy allowing schools to keep students\u2019 gender identity secret from parents, calling it a major parental rights case.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2026\/03\/supreme-court-backs-parents-in-parental-notification-for-social-transitions\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Supreme Court Backs Parents in Parental Notification For Social Transitions\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"SCOTUS blocks CA policy allowing schools to keep students\u2019 gender identity secret from parents, calling it a major parental rights case.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2026\/03\/supreme-court-backs-parents-in-parental-notification-for-social-transitions\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Beliefnet News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-03-09T17:25:39+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2026\/03\/Court-LGBTQ_credit-Adobe-Stock.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"900\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Cecilia Buchanan\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Supreme Court Backs Parents in Parental Notification For Social Transitions","description":"SCOTUS blocks CA policy allowing schools to keep students\u2019 gender identity secret from parents, calling it a major parental rights case.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2026\/03\/supreme-court-backs-parents-in-parental-notification-for-social-transitions","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Supreme Court Backs Parents in Parental Notification For Social Transitions","og_description":"SCOTUS blocks CA policy allowing schools to keep students\u2019 gender identity secret from parents, calling it a major parental rights case.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2026\/03\/supreme-court-backs-parents-in-parental-notification-for-social-transitions","og_site_name":"Beliefnet News","article_published_time":"2026-03-09T17:25:39+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":900,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2026\/03\/Court-LGBTQ_credit-Adobe-Stock.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Cecilia Buchanan","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2026\/03\/supreme-court-backs-parents-in-parental-notification-for-social-transitions","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2026\/03\/supreme-court-backs-parents-in-parental-notification-for-social-transitions","name":"Supreme Court Backs Parents in Parental Notification For Social Transitions","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2026\/03\/supreme-court-backs-parents-in-parental-notification-for-social-transitions#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2026\/03\/supreme-court-backs-parents-in-parental-notification-for-social-transitions#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2026\/03\/Court-LGBTQ_credit-Adobe-Stock.jpg","datePublished":"2026-03-09T17:25:39+00:00","dateModified":"2026-03-09T17:25:39+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/450625ec20bf3e8a84060b9321455f3d"},"description":"SCOTUS blocks CA policy allowing schools to keep students\u2019 gender identity secret from parents, calling it a major parental rights case.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2026\/03\/supreme-court-backs-parents-in-parental-notification-for-social-transitions#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2026\/03\/supreme-court-backs-parents-in-parental-notification-for-social-transitions"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2026\/03\/supreme-court-backs-parents-in-parental-notification-for-social-transitions#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2026\/03\/Court-LGBTQ_credit-Adobe-Stock.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/140\/2026\/03\/Court-LGBTQ_credit-Adobe-Stock.jpg","width":1200,"height":900},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2026\/03\/supreme-court-backs-parents-in-parental-notification-for-social-transitions#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Supreme Court Backs Parents in Parental Notification For Social Transitions"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/","name":"Beliefnet News","description":"Top Religious News From Around the World","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/450625ec20bf3e8a84060b9321455f3d","name":"Brandy Grenier","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/e53\/e53f6ea4c6b15081d4df68e2d7d7750ex96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/e53\/e53f6ea4c6b15081d4df68e2d7d7750ex96.jpg","caption":"Brandy Grenier"},"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/author\/bgrenier"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31105","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/516"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31105"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31105\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31111,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31105\/revisions\/31111"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31108"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31105"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31105"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}