As AFN previously reported, a ruling Monday from the nation’s highest court blocked a radical law that prevents school officials from notifying parents if the school learns a child is “transitioning” to the opposite sex.
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.
The ruling sends the case back to a lower federal court, the 9th Circuit, where the case is pending after the State of California appealed a permanent injunction granted by the federal judge, Roger T. Benitez.
In his ruling last year, which rejected a motion to dismiss the lawsuit, Judge 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.”
Thomas More Society attorney Michael McHale hopes that effectively ends the case but points out the 9th Circuit also issued an emergency and temporary stay after the State of California appealed.
It’s because of that action by the 9th Circuit that Thomas More went to the U.S. Supreme Court for the emergency reversal, which was granted earlier this week.
Thomas More Society represents parents and the two teachers in the case.
“The case technically proceeds in the 9th Circuit per normal, but again we think the logic of this ruling is decisive and we'll see what happens," said McHale. "We're hoping that this effectively ends the case but, you know, that remains to be seen."
