The ruling, which came Monday night, blocks a radical California law from 2023. That law came after local school districts, rebelling against their own liberal-dominated government, approved new parental notification policies that were passed to counter the Far Left’s obsession over transgenderism.
The lawsuit that reached the high court, Mirabelli v. Bonta, was filed by two middle school teachers, Elizabeth Mirabelli and Lori Ann West, who exposed what they called a “parental exclusion policy” in the Escondido Union School District.
Thomas More Society, the religious liberty law firm, represented the suing teachers as well as the parents of California school kids.
In the Monday ruling, the high court agreed to reinstate a previous federal court ruling that prohibits California’s public schools from “misleading parents” about their child’s gender identity while on school grounds.
AFN previously reported on that federal court ruling in a January 2025 article. That news story predicted parents would prevail, and trans-defending liberal politicians would lose, after a federal court judge blistered Rob Bonta, California’s attorney general.
In his ruling last year, which rejected Bonta’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit, U.S. District Court Judge Roger T. Benitez wrote a parent’s right to make decisions for their children “is one of the oldest of the fundamental liberty interests that Americans enjoy.”
Judge Benitez’s ruling mirrored the view of a rebelling school district, Chino Valley. Led by school board president Sonja Shaw, it was one of the first in the state to push back against trans ideology with a parental notification policy that was approved in 2023.
After that policy was approved at Chino Valley, Bonta used the power of his state office to launch a “civil rights investigation” of the school district for what he called the “forced outing” of trans students. He then filed a lawsuit weeks later.
At the time, Shaw told AFN David-versus-Goliath was a good analogy considering the State of California was coming after her and Chino Valley.
"Don't let them intimidate you. Your kids are worth the fight," Shaw said at the time.
In a summary of the Monday ruling, the Scotusblog website said the majority of justices found the state law is subject to a stringent constitutional test, known in legal circles as strict scrutiny. Under that review, the high court found the state law interferes with the rights of parents to guide the religious beliefs of their own children, the majority wrote.
Even though the State of California claims it's concerned about safety and privacy, the majority opinion says the state “cut out the primary protectors of children’s best interests: their parents.”
Interviewed on American Family Radio about the Monday ruling, parental rights advocate Corey DeAngelis reminded the audience of Judge Benitez’s ruling from more than a year ago.
“He got it right when he said policies like this keep parents in the dark,” DeAngelis said.
DeAngelis also recalled that pivotal court ruling described a “trifecta of harm” across California: it harms parents and their right to raise their children; harms teachers who oppose the policy but are forced to remain quiet; and it harms innocent children who are fed transgender ideology with the approval of the government.
Reacting to the California law, show host Jenna Ellis called it "mind boggling" for a state to pass such a law.
"It's mind boggling to me that under any sort of rational analysis, or objective concern for children, that this type of thing is, in their view, defensible at all," she said.
Yet the law is indeed being defended by a likely presidential candidate, Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom. He told reporters Tuesday the Supreme Court wants school teachers to be "snitches" on transgender students.
"I don't think teachers should be gender police," Newsom told reporters. "I think this issue has gotten weaponized, and our gay community has been demonized."
In another AFN interview, Moms for Liberty co-founder Tina Descovich said she was “thrilled” the nation’s highest court upheld a parent’s right to direct the upbringing of their children.
“The right to raise your child is fundamental,” she stated. “It is given to us by God, and no school or government entity can take that away.”
Descovich, who is herself a former school board member, warned parents to assume their public school is also indoctrinating their own children without their knowledge.
“Unless your state is purposely passing laws to stop this action, it’s happening in schools everywhere,” she warned.
