San Diego, CA – Thomas More Society attorneys have filed an opposition brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit urging the court to reject California’s attempt to narrow the U.S. Supreme Court’s March 2 ruling in Mirabelli v. Bonta, which restored a class-wide permanent injunction blocking state policies that require schools to conceal students’ secret gender transitions from their parents. In a 6-3 opinion, the High Court held that the injunction “promotes child safety by guaranteeing fit parents a role in some of the most consequential decisions in their children’s lives.”

Just four days after that decision, California filed an emergency motion asking the Ninth Circuit—the same court the Supreme Court had just reversed—to carve out a new, standardless “abuse exception” to the injunction and to stay or rewrite its notice provision informing school employees of parents’ constitutional rights. The new Thomas More Society filing argues the Ninth Circuit has no jurisdiction to modify what is now a Supreme Court order, and that California’s arguments were already considered and rejected by the High Court.

“The Supreme Court drew the line, but California would erase it,” said Peter Breen, Executive Vice President and Head of Litigation at Thomas More Society. “California built a gender secrecy regime that forced teachers to deceive parents about their own children. The Supreme Court put a stop to that. Now, instead of respecting the Court’s authority and fundamental parental rights, state officials are asking a lower court to rewrite the Supreme Court’s order. That’s not how our judicial system works.”

The filing reveals that, at a March 9 hearing, the district court offered to modify the injunction to incorporate the Supreme Court’s language, confirming that child abuse protections remain in place. California’s attorneys rejected the offer.

“The district court offered California exactly what they claimed to want, and they said no,” said Paul M. Jonna, Special Counsel at Thomas More Society and Partner at LiMandri & Jonna LLP. “That tells you everything about what their latest legal maneuver is really about. By asking the Ninth Circuit to rewrite language in the original injunction, California is seeking an end-run around the Supreme Court.”

School districts across California are already implementing the injunction. The California School Boards Association has issued compliance guidance instructing districts to respect parents’ rights and train staff on the change in the law. Modifying the injunction now would create the very confusion California claims to oppose.

“For years, California built a policy regime designed to cut parents out of their children’s lives once they entered the schoolhouse door. In Mirabelli v. Bonta, the Supreme Court put a stop to it—not on narrow grounds, but on bedrock constitutional principles that apply to every public school in America,” Breen added. “That California is already back in court trying to weaken this ruling should surprise no one. They have fought at every level to keep parents in the dark, and they have lost at the highest level. We will defend every word of our victory in Mirabelli.”

The Ninth Circuit is expected to rule on California’s request as the case continues through the appellate process. The Supreme Court’s March 2 decision, restoring protections for parents against California Parental Exclusion Policies, remains in effect.