SAN DIEGO, CA – The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has denied California’s emergency bid to circumvent the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Mirabelli v. Bonta, rejecting the state’s attempt to narrow the landmark March 2 ruling restoring a class-wide permanent injunction that blocks California schools from concealing students’ secret “gender transitions” from their parents. In a two-page order issued March 17 by a three-judge panel, the court agreed with Thomas More Society attorneys that the proper venue for any modification of the injunction is the district court—not the Ninth Circuit—and denied California’s motion.

“California has now lost at the district court, lost at the Supreme Court, and been turned away by the Ninth Circuit,” said Peter Breen, Executive Vice President and Head of Litigation at Thomas More Society. “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 recognized that parents are the primary protectors of their children’s safety and well-being. Today’s order confirms that California cannot use the Ninth Circuit as a backdoor to rewrite that holding.”

The ruling came just eleven days after California hastily filed an emergency motion seeking to carve out a vague, standardless “abuse exception” to the injunction and pressing the appellate court to rewrite the notice provision protecting parents’ rights.

Thomas More Society filed an opposition brief on March 10 calling the motion an “end-run around the Supreme Court.” The Ninth Circuit’s order sends California back to U.S. District Judge Roger Benitez—who issued the original permanent injunction—if it wishes to seek any modifications.  

Following the Supreme Court’s 6–3 ruling in Mirabelli v. Bonta, which held that California’s secret “gender transition” policies in schools likely violate the free exercise and due process rights of parents, a district court injunction blocking those policies remains in effect statewide.