In Chino Valley Unified School District v. Newsom, (ED CA, April 18, 2025), a California federal district court held that plaintiffs, parents of school children, lack standing to challenge a California law that prohibits public schools from requiring disclosure to parents, without their child’s consent, of their child’s change of name or gender pronoun at school. Plaintiffs are “devout Christians and believe that God created man and woman as distinct, immutable genders.” They contend that the law violates their free exercise rights and their right to control the upbringing and medical care of their children. The court said in part:
While the Court has no doubt as to the concern that Plaintiff Parents have toward the implementation of AB 1955, Plaintiff Parents have not shown that they have suffered or will imminently suffer any form of harm as a result the Act. For example, Plaintiff Parents do not allege that their own child has gone or goes by a different name at school, that their children’s school has deprived the parents of relevant information about their child, or that this is something that is likely to happen in the future….