Big news out of the 9th Circuit on Friday as the federal appeals court reversed course in a case involving a challenge to California's AB 1955, which prohibits schools from adopting policies requiring employees to notify parents about a student's gender identity or gender expression without the student's consent.
Do parents have a right to know when a school is trying to trans their kids? Yes, explains Judges Collins, Lee (Trump*2), and Koh (Biden). Order granted injunction pending appeal. The same panel had earlier denied, but the Supreme Court's Mirabelli decision changed the calculus. pic.twitter.com/pHyVYbwW90
— Eric W. (@EWess92) June 19, 2026
Plaintiffs in the case include Huntington Beach and several parents who challenged the law on constitutional grounds. The district court denied their motion for a preliminary injunction, and they appealed that denial to the 9th Circuit, which twice denied their requests for an injunction pending appeal, concluding they had not made a sufficient showing of Article III standing.
In March, however, the Supreme Court issued its decision in Mirabelli v. Bonta, which held that parents challenging California's school gender policies (in a separate case) likely do have standing because they are the objects of the challenged exclusion policies. In Mirabelli, SCOTUS affirmed that parents possess a substantive due process right to direct their children's upbringing, and that includes being informed when schools know a child is exhibiting symptoms of gender dysphoria.
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In light of Mirabelli, the plaintiffs filed a motion for reconsideration with the 9th Circuit, which, in its Friday ruling, determined reconsideration was warranted and granted an injunction pending appeal blocking enforcement of portions of AB 1955 — but only as to the named plaintiffs, and only as to information concerning their own children exhibiting symptoms of gender dysphoria while the appeal remains pending.
Still, this decision marks a dramatic reversal by the 9th Circuit following the SCOTUS ruling and demonstrates how quickly Mirabelli is reshaping litigation over parental rights and school gender policies. Ultimately, Friday's decision sends a strong signal that the panel believes the parents are likely to prevail on appeal, though the merits have not yet been finally decided.
The case now returns to the ordinary appellate process, but California cannot enforce these provisions against the plaintiff parents in the meantime.
Education Department Secretary Linda McMahon weighed in on the decision on Friday afternoon.
School officials under @CAgovernor have continuously boasted the facilitation of secret “gender transitions.”
— Secretary Linda McMahon (@EDSecMcMahon) June 19, 2026
With this decision, the Ninth Circuit reaffirmed parents’ right to access their child’s education records.
Children don’t belong to the State — they belong to parents. https://t.co/rJPGpilKDF
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