On July 15, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed into law Assembly Bill 1955, a law that attempts to void “Parental Notification Policies” enacted by local school districts across the Golden State to ensure that parents are involved in their children’s lives by requiring district employees to keep parents informed about their own children’s mental and emotional well-being. These policies require parental notification if the child begins identifying with a gender at odds with their biological sex, or otherwise exhibits gender-related issues at school—including if he or she begins the so-called ‘social transition’ process, which is typically the use of pronouns, names, and dress, that is incongruent with his or her biological sex. AB 1955 attempts to outlaw these parental notification policies, effectively mandating the systematic deception of parents about the well-being of their own children.

Paul Jonna, Thomas More Society Special Counsel and Partner at LiMandri & Jonna LLP, reacted to Gov. Newsom’s signing AB1955:

“AB 1955 is dead on arrival. Don’t take my word for it—read Judge Benitez’s September 2023 preliminary injunction order in our federal lawsuit. Parents have federal constitutional rights to know about their own children’s gender transitions. Schools can’t force teachers to withhold that information from parents; and school districts absolutely have the right to pass parental notification policies. Our proposed Second Amended Class Action complaint in Mirabelli v. Olson directly challenges AB 1955—which state officials claim does not create new law, but is only “declaratory” of existing state law. California legislators justify this blatantly unconstitutional law by citing “state privacy rights”—but they apparently do not understand, or refuse to recognize, that those rights are superseded by federal constitutional rights. We should know any day whether the Court will allow us to proceed with our proposed Second Amended Class Action complaint. We will be asking for class-wide injunctive relief and summary judgment, which will necessarily include enjoining AB 1955, as soon as the Court rules on our pending motion to amend, which was argued last week and taken under submission.”

Thomas More Society has been fighting against California’s radical push for “Parental Exclusion Policies,” which force teachers and other school district employees to lie to parents and hide information about kids’ gender-related issues at school. To learn more about our case, Mirabelli v. Olson, click here to visit the case page.