Supreme Court Declines Review of Circuit Rulings on School Gender Transition Policies

U.S. Supreme Court denied certiorari in two cases over the past eight days where public schools encouraged students to socially transition without parents' knowledge or consent, The Federalist reported. Social transitioning involves adopting a name, pronoun, clothing, and gender expression suitable to the opposite sex.

These denials add to a pattern where the court has turned away five such transgender cases in the last two years, involving objections from parents to secret transitioning in public schools. On Monday, the Supreme Court denied certiorari in a petition by Florida parents, supported by amicus briefs including one joined by nearly half the states advocating for parental information and control over schools pushing children toward transgender behavior.

In this Florida case, a 13-year-old girl with developmental delays and learning struggles began doubting her gender.

Her parents hired a private therapist and informed the school they opposed social transitioning. School officials in the Florida case met secretly with the girl, labeled her as nonbinary, mandated the use of they/them pronouns, allowed her to use boys' bathrooms, and prohibited informing her parents.

The school rejected the parents' objections, denied their request to participate, and refused their request for school records of meetings with their daughter.

The Eleventh Circuit sided with the school, holding that the parental-exclusion policy was executive conduct parents could not prevail against and that parents must prove an infringement shocking the conscience to compel compliance. F. 's social gender transition, treated her as nonbinary, and provided counseling to aid the transition.

The First Circuit panel, entirely Democrat-appointed, sided with the school, holding that the 11-year-old’s desires had priority over parental rights and that the transgender issue did not concern her mental health. With these latest denials, the Supreme Court has now denied petitions from anti-parent decisions by the First, Fourth, Seventh, Tenth, and Eleventh Circuits.

In each instance, the federal judiciary sided with schools secretly transitioning children without parental knowledge or over objections.

The court also denied certiorari in a Ninth Circuit case from two decades ago, where the circuit held that a parent’s right over her child’s upbringing does not extend beyond the threshold of the school door. Separately, in Mirabelli v. Bonta, the Supreme Court reinstated a district court injunction against a California law preventing public schools from notifying parents about a child’s gender identity or sexual orientation.

The decision, written by a 6-3 majority, was based on a religious obligation to raise children in accordance with those beliefs. The case is being litigated in federal court in California, with California’s opening brief due on July 6 in the Ninth Circuit. John and Andy Schlafly are sons of Phyllis Schlafly (1924-2016) and lead the Phyllis Schlafly Eagles organizations.