Attorneys Ask SCOTUS to Block California's School 'Gender Secrecy' Law

Attorneys representing parents in California filed an emergency request on Thursday asking the Supreme Court to block a federal appeals court ruling allowing the state’s “gender secrecy” policies to continue. 

Thomas More Society attorneys wrote in the filing that California law requires public schools to hide children’s expressed “transgender status” at school from their own parents — including religious parents — and demands school staff “actively facilitate those children’s ‘social transition’ over their parents’ express objections.” 

“Right now, California’s parental deception scheme is keeping families in the dark and causing irreparable harm. That’s why we’re asking the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene immediately,” Paul M. Jonna, special counsel for Thomas More Society and partner at LiMandri & Jonna LLP, said. “The state is inserting itself unconstitutionally between parents and children, forcing schools to deceive families, and punishing teachers who tell the truth.”

The class action lawsuit was originally brought by two Christian teachers in California in 2023 and was later joined in 2024 by several concerned parents whose families have been impacted by the policy. Among the plaintiffs are “John” and “Jane Poe,” devout Catholic parents who allege they were never informed that their junior-high daughter was being treated as male at school for almost a year.

“Only when Child Poe unsuccessfully attempted suicide six months later did doctors treating her inform her parents about her ongoing gender transition at school,” the filing details.

Unable to afford private school, her parents transferred her to another school and requested the school keep them informed of her “gender presentation” and the use of her legal name and biological pronouns — but the school refused to do so, citing the state’s policy, attorneys said.

“The Poe parents thus remain completely sidelined by the school—to this day— pursuant to California’s policy that requires withholding information about their daughter’s gender presentation at school,” the emergency request states. “The same is true of Plaintiffs John and Jane Doe, also devout Catholics, who were lied to by each of their daughter’s teachers, and eventually discovered that the school had begun socially transitioning their daughter as early as fifth grade. They are still being denied notice about her current gender expression at school under Defendants’ policy.”

Thomas More Society attorneys filed the emergency application after a federal appeals court stayed a lower court decision blocking California’s policy. On December 22, 2025, the federal district court issued a class-wide permanent injunction blocking the gender secrecy policies. On January 5, 2026, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit stayed the injunction, allowing the policies to resume in public schools as litigation continues.

“California has spent three years evading accountability—scrubbing websites, hiding policies in teacher training, shifting legal arguments,” said Peter Breen, Executive Vice President and Head of Litigation at Thomas More Society. “We won’t let procedural gamesmanship delay justice for these families. The appellate court’s order misstated the record and ignored recent Supreme Court precedent, and we are confident in the strength of our legal position.”

“Parents cannot be told to stand around while their children are harmed,” Jonna said. “The Supreme Court should stay the Ninth Circuit’s cursory order and allow the district court’s permanent injunction to take effect immediately.”

“The Constitution does not allow the state to replace parents or conscript teachers into deception,” Jonna added. “The Supreme Court must act now.”

Attorneys said they also filed a separate motion in the Ninth Circuit seeking an en banc reconsideration of the stay order.