Judge Orders California to Pay $4.5M in School Policy Fees

A federal judge in California has ordered the state to pay more than $4.5 million in attorneys' fees to parents and teachers who successfully challenged public school policies that allowed students to change their gender identity without notifying their parents.

U.S. District Judge Roger Benitez issued the ruling on Tuesday in the Southern District of California, following a years-long lawsuit filed in 2023 against state education officials, including Attorney General Rob Bonta and Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond. The case, Mirabelli v. Bonta, targeted California's framework, often referred to as the SAFETY Act, which directed school staff to withhold information from parents about a student's use of different names, pronouns, or facilities aligned with a gender identity different from their biological sex. Plaintiffs argued that the policy violated their First Amendment rights to the free exercise of religion and their constitutional authority to guide their children's upbringing and education.

Benitez, in his order, described the state's legal strategy as marked by "litigation intransigence," noting repeated motions to dismiss, requests for judgment on the...