California ordered to pay $4.5M in gender secrecy school policy case

California suffered another blow in a lawsuit over gender confidentiality policies in schools when a federal judge this week ordered the state to pay $4.5 million in taxpayer-funded attorney fees to plaintiffs.

Judge Roger Benitez, appointed by former President George W. Bush, blasted state attorneys for what he described as an “unusual” series of court motions that forced the parents and teachers who filed the lawsuit to respond to California’s “intransigence on the case.”

The case challenged the California SECURITY Act, which prevents schools from requiring staff to notify parents if a student wants to change gender identity or pronouns. The Supreme Court rejected the policy in March, and jurisdictions with similar policies subsequently faced legal threats to repeal those policies.

Benitez said he assumed additional financial penalties in addition to the reimbursement of attorney fees to reach the $4.5 million figure because the case dealt with a “very important matter.”

NJ SCHOOL DISTRICT’S HIDDEN TRANSGENDER POLICY FACES LEGAL THREAT FOR DEFYING THE SUPREME COURT

“The state’s public education policies have thwarted the right of families to freely exercise their religion under the First Amendment. These policies also denied and subverted the federal constitutional rights of California parents to guide the health and welfare of their school-age children,” Benitez said. he wrote. “Such concerns are among the most important areas of family life in America’s history and tradition.”

The lawsuit, filed against California Attorney General Rob Bonta, alleges that the state has imposed an unconstitutional policy on schools that prevents teachers and staff from notifying parents if their children want to change their gender.

CALIFORNIA SCHOOL DISTRICT ALLOWS STUDENTS TO CHANGE THEIR NAMES AND GENDER IDENTITY SECRETLY FROM THEIR PARENTS

Protesters gather outside the Supreme Court to hear arguments over state laws banning transgender girls and women from playing on school athletic teams on Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026, in Washington. (Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP)

The Supreme Court sided with parents in a 6-3 emergency ruling, saying California’s policy preventing what critics described as the “forcible removal” of students from schools was likely unconstitutional.

The Thomas More Society, a conservative legal group, represented plaintiffs in the case and recently warned a New Jersey school district that legal action would be taken if the school district did not repeal a similar policy toward transgender students.

Supreme Court in Washington, DC, on Tuesday, November 4, 2025. (Pete Kiehart/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

CLICK TO REACH THE FOX NEWS APPLICATION

“This is just the beginning,” Peter Breen, vice president of the Thomas More Society, told Fox News Digital of his warning to the Westwood District School Board. “This is not the end, it is the beginning; our great victory at the Supreme Court. We are already receiving requests from other parents across the country and unfortunately expect to send many more demand letters.”

Fox News Digital has reached out to Bonta’s office for comment.