The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday blocked enforcement of a California law that restricted schools from notifying parents when students seek to change their gender identity at school, granting emergency relief to a conservative legal group challenging the policy, as reported by Fox News.

The court sided with the Thomas More Society, which had filed an emergency appeal seeking to halt the state’s ban on automatic parental notification requirements.

The law, signed in 2024 by California Gov. Gavin Newsom, prohibited school policies that required staff to inform parents if a student changed gender expression or pronouns without the student’s approval.

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The Thomas More Society described the decision as “the most significant parental rights ruling in a generation.”

The case was brought by two sets of Catholic parents represented by the group.

They argued that California’s law resulted in schools misleading families and facilitating students’ gender transitions without parental knowledge or consent.

California officials defended the law, arguing that students have privacy rights regarding gender expression, particularly in situations where they may fear rejection from family members.

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The state maintained that its policies sought to balance student privacy with parental rights.

Last year, state education officials advised school districts that the policy “does not mandate nondisclosure.”

Newsom’s office also previously stated that “parents continue to have full, guaranteed access to their student’s education records as required by federal law.”

In its unsigned order, the Supreme Court reinstated a lower-court ruling that had blocked the law and related school policies while the legal challenge proceeds.

“The parents who assert a free exercise claim have sincere religious beliefs about sex and gender, and they feel a religious obligation to raise their children in accordance with those beliefs. California’s policies violate those beliefs,” the majority wrote.

The order added that the state’s approach also burdens the free exercise of religion.

Conservative Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas indicated they would have granted additional relief to teachers challenging restrictions that limited their ability to inform parents.

The court’s three liberal justices dissented. Justice Elena Kagan wrote that the case was still being litigated in lower courts and that immediate intervention was unnecessary.

“If nothing else, this Court owes it to a sovereign State to avoid throwing over its policies in a slapdash way, if the Court can provide normal procedures. And throwing over a State’s policy is what the Court does today,” Kagan wrote.

The dispute has been unfolding in federal court for more than a year. In December 2025, a federal judge ruled that schools could not prohibit teachers from sharing information about a student’s gender identity with parents.

However, an appeals court blocked that ruling last month, prompting the plaintiffs to seek emergency relief from the Supreme Court.

The high court is also considering whether to hear similar cases from Massachusetts and Florida, where parents have raised concerns about schools facilitating gender transitions without notifying families.

The U.S. Department of Education announced last month that California’s law violates federal law.

The department’s findings could jeopardize nearly $8 billion in annual federal education funding to the state if officials do not address the violations in coordination with the Trump administration.

The administration is also pursuing legal action against California over policies allowing biological males to compete in girls’ sports and has warned that federal funding could be withheld.

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