Today's unsigned majority opinion in Mirabelli v. Bonta held that California policies that "prevent schools from telling them about their children's efforts to engage in gender transitioning at school unless the children consent to parental notification" and "require[] that schools use children's preferred names and pronouns regardless of their parents' wishes" violate parental rights.
Justice Kagan's dissent, joined by Justice Sotomayor, argues:
[A] contrast—this time, between this case and United States v. Skrmetti (2025)—is also striking. In Skrmetti, several parents challenged Tennessee's ban on gender-affirming care for minors. The suit raised claims grounded in both equal protection and substantive due process. As to the latter, the parents in Skrmetti, similarly to the parents here, asserted a right "to make decisions concerning medical care for their minor children." And in support of that right, the Skrmetti parents relied on the same [parental rights] precedents the Court does today …. But the Court, when deciding to grant certiorari in Skrmetti, limited its review to the equal protection issue: It would not even hear the parents out on their substantive due process claim.
