Court strips away California protections for transgender students’ privacy

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California officials may not enforce key provisions of a law protecting transgender students from forced outing against the parents challenging it while their lawsuit proceeds, a federal appeals court ruled Thursday.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit granted a preliminary injunction preventing officials from enforcing Sections 5 and 6 of Assembly Bill 1955 against the plaintiff parents in City of Huntington Beach v. Newsom with respect to information about their own children. The ruling does not block enforcement statewide.

The decision relied heavily on the U.S. Supreme Court’s March ruling in the related case Mirabelli v. Bonta. There, the justices said parents challenging California’s student confidentiality policies were “likely to succeed on the merits” of claims under the First Amendment’s Free Exercise Clause and the 14th Amendment’s Due Process Clause. The Supreme Court lifted a stay that had prevented a lower court injunction from taking effect for the parent plaintiffs while that case proceeds.

Related: California bans forced outing of LGBTQ+ students as Gov. Gavin Newsom signs landmark law

Citing that ruling, the 9th Circuit reconsidered its earlier decisions denying the Huntington Beach plaintiffs preliminary relief. The appellate panel concluded that the parents were likely to prevail and would suffer irreparable harm without an injunction.

The 9th Circuit had previously allowed the law to remain in effect while California challenged an injunction issued by a federal district court in Santa Ana, according to the Los Angeles Times.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed AB 1955, known as the SAFETY Act, in July 2024. The law prohibits school districts from adopting policies requiring employees to disclose information about a student’s sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression without the student’s consent. It also protects school employees from retaliation for supporting LGBTQ+ students.

The measure came amid a…

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