California ordered to pay $4.5 million, scolded for fighting to hide gender transitions from parents

The state of California must pay $4.5 million in legal fees for fighting tooth and nail against efforts to force it to stop schools from hiding students’ gender transitions from their parents.

Attorneys for the Thomas More Society helped parents prevail in the landmark Mirabelli v. Bonta case, obtaining a permanent injunction from the Supreme Court in March. Now, federal Judge Roger T. Benitez has ordered the Golden State to cover fees from the three-year legal battle.

Benitez’s eight-page order on March 30 “granted the full fee petition and placed the blame for the size of the fee squarely on California’s own litigation strategy,” said a release from Thomas More, a Catholic public interest law firm that fights for life, family and freedom.

“The court detailed a pattern of what it called ‘litigation intransigence’ by state defendants – including repeated motions to dismiss immediately after prior ones were denied, filing an appeal without waiting for the court’s ruling, and twice withdrawing arguments after they were ‘shown to be inarguably meritless.’”

Peter Breen, the society’s executive vice president and litigation director, said the $4.52 million fee award “sends an unmistakable message to state governments and school districts across the country: If you trample the constitutional rights of parents, you will pay for it – literally.”

He then chastised the state, which is led by Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom and Attorney General Rob Bonta, who was named in the case. Newsom’s proposed budget includes a $2.9 billion deficit and the state is hemorrhaging residents, many of whom are leaving because of high taxes and woke policies.

“California threw everything it had at this case. It lost at summary judgment, lost at the Supreme Court, and now Californians will foot the bill for their government officials’ refusal to respect the fundamental rights of families.”

Award amount increased

Benitez even awarded a 25% bonus, a “lodestar multiplier,” to the amount Thomas More requested, which brought the total to $4.5 million.

“The court found every factor justified the multiplier: the constitutional significance of the case, the results achieved, the undesirability of the case and the likelihood that no other attorney would have accepted it,” the society said.

Paul M. Jonna, special counsel for Thomas More, said California “fought this case at every turn with meritless arguments and procedural gamesmanship,” but should have relented once Benitez issued a preliminary injunction in September 2023.

“Rational government actors would have abandoned these dangerous policies then and there,” Jonna said. “Instead, California officials doubled down, wasted taxpayer resources, and left them holding the bag for this $4.5 million fee award.

“The state defendants should be held fully accountable both for their reprehensible and dangerous policies and also for their decision to fight this losing battle in the first place. Fortunately for the nation, their intransigence backfired and provided a great blessing: a U.S. Supreme Court order undoing gender secrecy policies for the country.”

Even in defeat, the state continues to resist the ruling, Benitez noted, and litigate “based on the thinnest of arguments,” which likely influenced his decision to increase the award.

In light of the large award and the historic 6-3 Supreme Court win, Breen said the society “will continue to enforce the Mirabelli ruling nationwide, and any school district or state that tries to cut parents out of their children’s lives should expect the same result.”

The society is considering a legal case against a New Jersey district for refusing to notify parents of students’ name or pronoun changes.