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WASHINGTON, D.C. – America First Legal (AFL), in partnership with Schaerr Jaffe LLP, has filed a petition for a writ of certiorari with the U.S. Supreme Court in its ongoing litigation against the state of Washington on behalf of concerned parents and advocacy organizations. AFL’s filing asks the Supreme Court to review a Ninth Circuit decision that blocks parents from challenging Washington state laws that separate children from parents who refuse to affirm their child’s claimed “gender identity.”
Under the Ninth Circuit ruling, Washington state’s statute cannot be challenged because the child’s parents have not been injured by the State’s law. In Washington, when a child flees home and claims gender-related distress, state-licensed shelters can provide minors with “gender-affirming care” without parental knowledge or consent. This legal scheme incentivizes gender-confused children to run away, encouraging them to find resources and protection from the state instead of their own families. Such encouragement infringes upon a parent’s right to raise their children and is an injury.
Although parents are the direct targets of these laws, the Ninth Circuit ruled that they cannot sue unless their child has already run away or suffered irreversible harm. This decision forces parents to wait until severe, permanent damage to their child has already occurred before parents may bring the matter to court. But that is not how the law works in virtually any other context.
Under the Fourteenth Amendment, parents have the right to direct the care and upbringing of their children. AFL is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to make clear that parents do not have to lose their children or have them be permanently harmed before parents can defend their constitutional rights.
“The Constitution does not require parents to stand helplessly by until their child is gone or harmed before they can go to court,” said Nick Barry, Senior Counsel at America First Legal. “Washington laws push children to flee their families and invite the State to step into the parents’ role. The Ninth Circuit’s ruling turns standing doctrine into a shield for that scheme. The Supreme Court should intervene and recognize parents are injured through the state’s interference with their parental rights and allow them to at least challenge the law on its merits, before their children suffer untold harm.”
AFL will continue fighting to support families, defend parents, and save children from radical gender ideology.
Read the full petition here.
Read more about this case here.
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