Mirabelli, et al. v. Bonta

Can a state force teachers to lie to parents about their own children? That's what California demanded, but the U.S. Supreme Court said no.

On March 2, 2026, the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in Mirabelli v. Bonta that California's policies requiring schools to conceal children's gender transitions from parents likely violate both the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment and the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The Court vacated a Ninth Circuit stay and restored the class-wide permanent injunction that Thomas More Society secured on behalf of parents and teachers across the state. In the most significant parental rights ruling in a generation, the Court held that California "cut out the primary protectors of children's best interests: their parents."

The case began in 2023 when Thomas More Society filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of Elizabeth Mirabelli and Lori West, two award-winning middle school teachers in Escondido, California, who were being forced to hide students' gender transitions from parents and actively deceive families. Thomas More Society expanded the case into a statewide class action, adding California Attorney General Rob Bonta as a defendant and bringing on parents whose children had been secretly transitioned at school, including a family that learned of their daughter's transition only after she attempted to take her own life.

In December 2025, U.S. District Judge Roger Benitez granted summary judgment and entered a class-wide permanent injunction ending California's gender secrecy policies. The Ninth Circuit stayed that injunction after AG Bonta appealed, but the Supreme Court has now restored it. The injunction remains in effect as the case returns to the Ninth Circuit for further proceedings. This landmark ruling sends a clear message to every state in the nation: parents cannot be shut out of participation in decisions regarding their children’s mental health. Thomas More Society will continue to fight to ensure this precedent dismantles secret gender transition policies wherever they exist across the country.