How SCOTUS Manipulated Its Docket to Hide an Anti-LGBTQ+ Ruling From the Spotlight

"The conservative justices put on hold the state's policies requiring schools to keep students' expressions of gender identity confidential, unless students consent to sharing this information with their parents. Parents who object to affirming their children's gender identity sued California and obtained an injunction from a district court, which also ordered schools to use students' names and pronouns in accordance with their parents' preferences."

"The majority announced that parents "likely" have a right, under both the free exercise and due process clause, to learn about (and object to) the gender identity that their child expresses at school. Justice Amy Coney Barrett also wrote a concurrence-joined by Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Brett Kavanaugh-defending the decision against Justice Elena Kagan's sharp dissent."

The Supreme Court's conservative majority issued a shadow docket decision in Mirabelli v. Bonta that halted California's policies designed to protect transgender and gender-nonconforming students' privacy. The state's rules required schools to maintain confidentiality about students' gender identity expressions unless students consented to parental disclosure. Parents opposing gender-affirming practices sued and obtained a district court injunction ordering schools to use names and pronouns according to parental preferences. When the Ninth Circuit stayed this injunction, the parents petitioned the Supreme Court, which expedited the case without full briefing. Six conservative justices reinstated the injunction, effectively requiring schools to inform parents of students' gender identity expressions and use parental-preferred pronouns, overriding student privacy protections.

Read at Slate Magazine