Conservatives celebrated Tuesday after a federal appeals court denied California's request to narrow a Supreme Court ruling on transgender policies, two weeks after the high court dealt the state a major blow in the same case.
"California has now lost at the district court, lost at the Supreme Court, and been turned away by the Ninth Circuit," Executive Vice President of the Thomas More Society Peter Breen said in a statement. "The state has repeatedly tried to paint parents who don't immediately accept their children's assertion of a new name and gender as 'abusive.' The courts have resoundingly rejected that premise."
The Supreme Court had temporarily blocked California officials on March 2 from interfering with school policies that require parents to be notified if their child identifies as transgender.
Democrat California Attorney General Rob Bonta's office responded by turning to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit to seek clarification on the high court's ruling in an effort to interpret it more narrowly.
CALIFORNIA SCHOOL DISTRICT LETS STUDENTS CHANGE NAMES AND GENDER IDENTITY IN SECRET FROM PARENTS
A three-judge panel comprising three Democrat-appointed judges acknowledged that Bonta's office raised "important concerns" about whether the injunction upheld by the Supreme Court would force schools to disclose gender-related details to parents "who would engage in abuse." But, the panel said, that was for the lower court to decide at this stage.
The Thomas More Society, a Catholic-based law firm helping to represent the parents and teachers who brought the lawsuit against the state, added that the 9th Circuit effectively told California officials on Tuesday they cannot use the appellate court as a "backdoor to rewrite" the Supreme Court's ruling.
Civil rights lawyer Laura Powell noted that Bonta's "attempt to circumvent SCOTUS's order" had failed and that the district court judge, an appointee of former President George W. Bush, would likely side against Bonta again.
"Good like convincing Judge [Roger] Benitez to back down after being vindicated by SCOTUS!" Powell wrote.
Benitez had issued the initial preliminary injunction that the Supreme Court upheld, and the same judge will continue to preside over the broader case as it plays out in court.
The lawsuit, Mirabelli v. Bonta, was brought by California parents and teachers who argued that the state's policy violated their rights under the First and Fourteenth Amendments. The parents said the policy prevented school administrators from telling them about their child's potential efforts to engage in gender transitioning unless the child consented to it. The policy also required school staff to use a student's preferred name and pronouns regardless of the parents' wishes.
"The State argues that its policies advance a compelling interest in student safety and privacy," the high court wrote in the unsigned order. "But those policies cut out the primary protectors of children's best interests: their parents."
Attorneys for California had argued that balancing the interests of parents and the "needs of transgender students" presented complex questions that should not be answered on an emergency basis while the litigation proceeds.
Fox News Digital reached out to Bonta's office for comment.
