Supreme Court Asked to Block CA Trans Law

By Paul Goldberg, Senior Editor | JRL CHARTS – LGBT Politics

WASHINGTON, D.C. — (January 10, 2026) — A Catholic legal advocacy group has formally asked the U.S. Supreme Court to block enforcement of a California law that bars public school employees from disclosing a student’s transgender identity to parents without the student’s consent.

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The emergency appeal, filed Thursday by the Thomas More Society, seeks to reinstate a federal judge’s December ruling that allowed parents with religious objections to opt out of the law’s requirements. The statute prohibits teachers and school officials from notifying parents when a student asks to use different pronouns, adopt a new name, or express a gender identity different from their sex at birth.

Attorneys for the group argue the law violates the religious rights of parents by preventing them from receiving what they call essential information about their children.

“Parents only relinquish authority needed for the school to carry out its educational mission,” the filing states. “They do not delegate authority to make decisions regarding whether their child is a boy or a girl.”

California’s law, signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2024 and in effect since last year, also protects students from being outed based on sexual orientation. However, the current lawsuit focuses primarily on gender identity disclosures. While the statute permits schools to share information in “compelling” circumstances, critics say that exception is too vague to offer meaningful protection for parental rights.

On December 22, U.S. District Judge Roger Benitez, a George W. Bush appointee in San Diego, issued a permanent injunction blocking key portions of the law.

“Parents have a right to receive gender information and teachers have a right to provide to parents accurate information about a child’s gender identity,” Benitez wrote in his ruling.

However, a three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals quickly paused Benitez’s injunction. Earlier this week, the court ordered the ruling to remain on hold while the state appeals the decision, effectively allowing California’s law to stay in force for now.

In addition to their Supreme Court request, the plaintiffs say they will also ask a larger panel of Ninth Circuit judges to reconsider whether Benitez’s injunction should take effect while the appeal is pending.

The emergency filing repeatedly cites a Supreme Court decision from June 2025 involving Montgomery County, Maryland, in which the justices ruled that public schools violated parents’ First Amendment religious rights by not allowing them to opt out of certain instructional materials.

Supporters of California’s law argue it is necessary to protect vulnerable transgender students from being forcibly outed in unsafe or hostile home environments — a concern that has gained national attention as school districts and state governments clash over gender identity policies.

A spokesperson for California Attorney General Rob Bonta said the state plans to continue defending the law.

“We look forward to continuing to make our case in court,” Bonta’s office said in a statement.

The legal battle also comes amid renewed federal scrutiny. The Trump administration announced last March that the U.S. Department of Education opened an investigation into California’s enforcement of the law prohibiting the “forced outing” of students.

The Supreme Court has not yet indicated whether it will take up the emergency request, but the case is now positioned as one of the most significant national tests of how far states can go in balancing parental rights, religious liberty, and the privacy of transgender youth.

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