6.5.24

The News: The Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty (WILL) and America First Legal (AFL) filed a Petition for Writ of Certiorari with the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) in Parents Protecting Our Children v. Eau Claire Area School District. Our case challenges the Eau Claire school district’s policy to hide gender identity transitions at school from parents. Our petition asks the Court to take the case to hold that when a school district adopts an explicit policy to usurp parental decision-making authority over a major health-related decision—and to conceal this from the parents—parents who are subject to the policy have standing to challenge it.

The Quotes: WILL Deputy Counsel, Luke Berg, stated, “Thousands of school districts across our country have these policies. 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.”

Our Clients: WILL and AFL represent an association of parents, all of whom have children in the Eau Claire School District and are subject to this policy, and who do not want school district staff making decisions about their own children that are kept secret from them. Although they are subject to this policy and directly harmed by it, the District Court dismissed the case for lack of standing before it even got off the ground, and the Seventh Circuit affirmed.

Additional Background: School districts across the country—by one count, over 1,000, covering nearly 11
million students —have adopted policies to facilitate minor students, often of any age, changing their gender identity at school (names, pronouns, and bathroom use) in secret from their parents. Many of these policies, like the Eau Claire School District’s, prohibit teachers from discussing with parents what is happening with their own child at school, and even require staff to actively hide information from parents. School is now like Las Vegas, “what happens at school, stays at school.” Consequently, there have been nearly 30 lawsuits with the same basic facts as this case—a challenge to a school district policy to hide gender identity transitions at
school from parents.

ABOUT WILL: We litigate, educate and participate in public discourse. Our case categories include Individual Liberties, Equality Under the Law, Constitutional Government and the Rule of Law, Economic Freedom, and Education Reform. We have prevailed in roughly 80% of the matters we have undertaken. Our record of winning is indisputable. WILL’s winning reputation has allowed us to settle other matters without ever filing a
lawsuit. Find out more at: will-law.org.

Read More:

• Petition For Writ of Certiorari, Filed June 5, 2024