The Supreme Court on Monday declined to intervene in a case involving a group of Wisconsin parents who sued their children’s school district over a policy meant to support transgender students, letting two lower court rulings dismissing the case stand.
In a brief, unsigned order, the justices denied the parents’ request to review the lower court decisions, which conceded that while parents may have “genuine concerns” about a western Wisconsin school district’s gender support plan that allows transgender students to use a different name and pronouns at school without their family’s consent, the parents involved in the lawsuit lack standing to challenge the policy because none of them has a transgender child.
In a written dissent, Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas said they would have heard the case regardless.
“The challenged policy and associated equity training specifically encourage school personnel to keep parents in the dark about the ‘identities’ of their children, especially if the school believes that the parents would not support what the school thinks is appropriate. Thus, the parents’ fear that the school district might make decisions for their children without their knowledge and consent is not ‘speculative.’ They are merely taking the school district at its word,” they wrote. Justice Brett Kavanaugh also said he would have granted the parents’ petition but did not join in the dissent.