Mirabelli v. Bonta

Before us is an application to vacate a Court of Appeals order staying a permanent injunction entered by a District Court on behalf of parents and teachers who claim that certain California policies violate their rights under the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment and the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The parents object that these policies prevent schools from telling them about their children’s efforts to engage in gender transitioning at school unless the children consent to parental notification. The parents also take issue with California’s requirement that schools use children’s preferred names and pronouns regardless of their parents’ wishes. The teachers object to their compelled participation in the implementation of the State’s policies.

This case began in the United States District Court for the Southern District of California in 2023 when two teachers sued seeking an exemption from their school district’s policies regarding students’ gender. During litigation, the school district claimed that state law, as interpreted by the California attorney general and Department of Education, required it to adopt these policies. So the teachers added state officials as defendants, and parents of California schoolchildren joined the lawsuit as plaintiffs. Relying on their own experiences and guidance documents issued by state officials, plaintiffs alleged that California’s policies permitted disclosure of a student’s gender transitioning at school only if the student consented. Plaintiffs claimed that these policies violated their rights under the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment and the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.