Overview
- The unsigned order temporarily blocks California from enforcing nondisclosure and related pronoun-use directives against the parent plaintiffs while appeals continue.
- The justices said the parents are likely to succeed on Free Exercise and substantive due process claims, applying strict scrutiny and citing last year’s Mahmoud precedent on parental rights.
- The court limited relief to parents and denied similar emergency relief for teacher plaintiffs, leaving their claims stayed.
- California officials argue the policies do not categorically forbid informing parents and allow or require disclosure when a student’s safety is at risk, with AB 1955 providing the policy backdrop.
- Justices Kagan, Sotomayor, and Jackson dissented, criticizing the use of the emergency docket, and the underlying case, Mirabelli v. Bonta, remains pending in the Ninth Circuit.