Mirabelli v. Bonta

California keeps parents in the dark

California’s Department of Education issued guidance that directed public schools to treat a student’s expressed transgender status at school as private information that could be withheld from parents. Schools were told to respect a student’s wishes about who could be informed—including whether parents would be told at all—and to avoid sharing that information except in rare situations. As a result, parents across California have been left unaware when schools begin treating their children as a different gender during the school day, and teachers have been forced to carry out that secrecy and deception.

Religious parents and teachers push back 

With the help of LiMandri & Jonna and Thomas More Society, a group of parents and teachers filed a lawsuit challenging California’s secret transition policy. Catholic families involved in the case discovered that their children had been socially transitioned at school without their knowledge or consent, cutting them out of decisions central to their children’s upbringing and faith. In one family’s case, the parents learned what had been happening only after their daughter attempted suicide. Teachers also challenged the policy, arguing that being required to hide a student’s transgender status from parents violated their deeply held religious beliefs about honoring the role of parents as the primary guides in raising their children. These families still don’t know how the schools are interacting with their children on this important and sensitive issue.  

In December 2025, a federal district court ruled for the parents and teachers and blocked California’s secret transition policy, relying in part on Becket’s landmark Supreme Court victory in Mahmoud v. Taylor. Days later, a federal appeals court put that ruling on hold. On January 8, 2026, the parents and teachers filed an emergency application asking the Supreme Court to restore their hard-won protection. 

Becket defends parents’ right to raise their children according to their faith 

On January 20, 2026, Becket filed a friend-of-the-court brief in support of the parents and teachers. The brief urged the Supreme Court to protect the right of parents to raise and educate their children according to their faith. It explained that the Court has long recognized this principle—from its earliest parental-rights decisions to its recent ruling in Mahmoud v. Taylor—and that these protections do not disappear when families choose public schools. 

Becket’s brief also noted that disputes over schools transitioning children without parental knowledge are increasingly common, reaching courts across the country. This case gave the Supreme Court an opportunity to reaffirm its existing precedent and provide clear guidance to lower courts and school districts, ensuring that parents are not sidelined in matters central to family life, and children’s wellbeing and religious upbringing.

The Supreme Court blocked California’s policy and protected parents’ rights to know what is happening with their children at school. In its per curiam opinion released on March 2, 2026, the Court wrote that California’s policies were an even “greater” intrusion on parents’ rights than the policy in Mahmoud and that “California’s policies will likely not survive the strict scrutiny that Mahmoud demands. The State argues that its policies advance a compelling interest in student safety and privacy. But those policies cut out the primary protectors of children’s best interests: their parents.” 

Importance to religious liberty:   

• Parental rights: Parents have the right to direct the religious upbringing of their children—an authority parents do not surrender at the schoolhouse door. Teachings around family life and human sexuality lie at the heart of most religions. On such core questions, Becket defends the religious authority of parents.