U.S. Supreme Court Refuses to Hear Eau Claire Schools Gender Policy Challenge

US Supreme Court Denies Gender Case

School leaders in Eau Claire are not going to have to defend their gender policy to the United States Supreme Court.

The high court on Monday refused to hear a challenge to the policy that allows teachers and administrators to keep gender transitions at school secret from their parents.

Three judges, Samuel Alito, Brett Kavanaugh and Clarence Thomas, agreed to take the case but they needed a fourth.

Alito said the heart of the case, whether schools violate parents’ rights when they encourage or allow secret, at-school gender transition, is “a question of great and growing national importance.”

Eau Claire's Administrative Guidance for Gender Identity Support encourages transgender students to speak with staff members about their concerns. The policy then instructs school employees to be careful who they speak with about a student’s gender, and warns them to be careful telling families, because not all students are “out.”

The policy also states that parents “are not entitled to know their kids’ identities,” instead they must “earn” access to their childrens’ information.

A group of Eau Claire parents sued the city’s school district in November of 2022, accusing the school district of hiding gender transitions from parents with its new policy.

The lawsuit, however, was dismissed because lower courts said the parents who sued didn’t have children affected by the policy.

The Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty, which represented some of the parents in the original case, was quick to point-out on Monday that no court ever decided the case on its merits.

WILL also promised to keep fighting.

"Despite this denial, the fight for parents' rights continues in Wisconsin and across the country," WILL attorney Luke Berg said in a statement. "Thousands of school districts across our country have these policies and it has become an important part of our work at WILL. If parents cannot challenge them until after their children are harmed, they have no way to protect their kids other than pulling them from public school.”

The Liberty Justice Center, which filed briefs in support of the parents in the Eau Claire case, said the court is eventually going to have to decide the issue, because secret gender policies are becoming more and more common at schools across the country.

“Policies that encourage school administrators to facilitate the transition of minor children—without involving or even informing their parents or guardians—are an issue of growing national importance. We are proud to challenge these destructive policies and other actions by the state legislators and school boards who want to keep secrets from parents, and we will continue to stand up for parents’ rights across the country," Liberty Justice's Senior Counsel Emily Rae stated Monday.