The U.S. Supreme Court earlier this month ruled in a case called Mirabelli v. Bonta that parents who sued California over a school policy requiring teachers to keep secrets from parents likely would succeed on the merits.
Rob Bonta, California’s attorney general and a defendant in the case, did not appreciate the ruling.
Days after the high court handed it down, AG Bonta asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit either to block a lower court’s order that state officials release a statement affirming parents’ rights or force the court to rewrite the statement, claiming that it does not “track the reasoning in the Supreme Court’s decision.”
Thomas More Society, which represents the teachers and parents who filed the lawsuit, announced on Wednesday that the Ninth Circuit turned him down.
“Last night, the 9th Circuit rejected the state’s emergency bid to circumvent the Supreme Court’s landmark parental rights ruling in Mirabelli v. Bonta,” Thomas More Society wrote on X.
Peter Breen, an attorney at the legal firm, said the high court “recognized that parents are the primary protectors of their children’s safety and well-being. Today’s order confirms that California cannot use the Ninth Circuit as a backdoor to rewrite that holding.”
The attorney general isn’t done. He does not want teachers to share important information about children’s mental health issues with parents, and he does not want Christian teachers to be exempted from lying or keeping secrets.
Photo credit: By Pi.1415926535 – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, link
