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California was dealt one other blow in a lawsuit over gender secrecy insurance policies in colleges when a federal decide ordered the state this week to pay the plaintiffs within the case $4.5 million in taxpayer-funded authorized charges.
Decide Roger Benitez, an appointee of former President George W. Bush, scolded state legal professionals in his order for what he stated was an “uncommon” spree of court docket motions that pressured the mother and father and academics who introduced the lawsuit to answer California’s “litigation intransigence.”
The lawsuit challenged California’s SAFETY Act, which blocked colleges from requiring workers to inform mother and father if a scholar sought to vary their gender identification or pronouns. The Supreme Court docket rejected the coverage in March and jurisdictions with related insurance policies have subsequently been hit with authorized threats to repeal them.
Benitez additionally tacked on added monetary penalties, along with the authorized charges reimbursement, to succeed in the $4.5 million determine as a result of the case involved a “crucial topic,” he stated.
NJ SCHOOL DISTRICT’S SECRETIVE TRANSGENDER POLICY FACES LEGAL THREAT FOR BUCKING SUPREME COURT

California Lawyer Normal Rob Bonta (Reuters/Fred Greaves/File Picture)
“State public schooling insurance policies impinged on households’ proper to the free train of faith below the First Modification. The insurance policies additionally rejected and subverted the federal constitutional rights of California mother and father to information the well being and well-being of their school-age youngsters,” Benitez wrote. “Such considerations intrude among the many most essential areas of household life in America’s historical past and custom.”
The lawsuit, introduced in opposition to California Lawyer Normal Rob Bonta, had argued that the state imposed an unconstitutional coverage on colleges that blocked academics and workers from informing mother and father if their youngster needed to vary their gender.
CALIFORNIA SCHOOL DISTRICT LETS STUDENTS CHANGE NAMES AND GENDER IDENTITY IN SECRET FROM PARENTS

Protesters collect exterior the Supreme Court docket because it hears arguments over state legal guidelines barring transgender women and girls from taking part in on college athletic groups, Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026, in Washington. (Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP)
The Supreme Court docket sided with the mother and father in a 6-3 emergency order, saying California’s coverage, which blocked what critics described as colleges’ “pressured outing” of scholars, was seemingly unconstitutional.
The Thomas Extra Society, a conservative authorized group, represented the plaintiffs within the case and not too long ago warned a college district in New Jersey that it will start authorized motion if the varsity district didn’t repeal an identical coverage on transgender college students.

The Supreme Court docket in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2025. ( Pete Kiehart/Bloomberg through Getty Photos)
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“That is only the start,” Peter Breen, Thomas Extra Society govt vp, informed Fox Information Digital of its warning to the Westwood Regional Faculty Board. “This isn’t an finish, however a starting, our large win within the Supreme Court docket. We’re already fielding requests from different mother and father throughout the nation, and we anticipate sending much more demand letters, sadly.”
Fox Information Digital reached out to Bonta’s workplace for remark.
