Dozens of groups urged the court to protect parental rights and religious freedom as the state law remains blocked.
By Catholics for Catholics
An alliance of advocacy groups, lawmakers and state attorney generals filed dozens of legal briefs in support of California parents who are braving a state law that dismisses parents from decisions about “socially” transitioning a child’s gender.
According to a story by EWTN News, California law does not permit school districts to take up policies that compel teachers and school administrators to inform parents when their child identifies as transgender and wants to be treated as the opposite sex. The law does not forbid voluntary notification by a teacher.
Represented by the Catholic nonprofit legal group The Thomas More Society, the parents are getting support from 17 state attorneys general, five senators, and dozens of organizations that filed legal briefs with the appellate court in their defense.
Paul M. Jonna, special counsel for Thomas More Society, said in a statement that the legal briefs “all converge on the same point,” which is that the law will not survive “strict scrutiny,” which is the highest standard of review, required in cases when constitutional rights are at risk.
“Parents, not school bureaucrats, have the right to raise their children and to direct their religious upbringing,” Jonna said. “That means a school may not facilitate a child’s gender transition without their knowledge and consent.”
According to the EWTN story, the U.S. Supreme Court in March stopped the enforcement of the state law, cautioning it cuts parents out of the conversation. The 6-3 decision did not offer a final ruling on the constitutionality of the law but discovered that it probably violates constitutionally protected rights to freedom of religion and to direct the upbringing of one’s children, and sent the case back down to the lower courts.
A lower court’s permanent injunction that blocks the law indefinitely is in effect, and the case is in front of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit.
Five Republican senators signed on to a joint brief supporting the parents: Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas; Sen. Mike Lee of Utah; Sen. Kevin Cramer of North Dakota; Sen. Roger Marshall of Kansas; and Sen. Jim Banks of Indiana.
“America’s history and tradition affirm that parents bear the primary responsibility for their children’s upbringing and have ‘natural bonds of affection’ with their children leading them to act in their children’s best interests,” the senators wrote.
“The state must presume that parents are fit to direct their children’s upbringing and education,” they wrote. “It follows that parents are also in the best position to help their children with life’s struggles. That includes mental health struggles like gender dysphoria. When children engage with their school for help regarding their gender dysphoria, the school must tell the parents.”
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