A federal judge has ordered California to pay more than $4.52 million in attorneys' fees to a coalition of parents and teachers who successfully challenged the state's anti-parent public school policies on student gender transitions.
U.S. District Judge Roger T. Benitez issued the fee award on March 30 in the long-running case, citing the plaintiffs' prevailing status after winning summary judgment and a class-wide injunction last year.
The ruling came as the underlying dispute continues in the federal appeals court.
The lawsuit, filed in April 2023, targeted California policies that directed schools to support students' social gender transitions while withholding that information from parents.
Plaintiffs argued that the approach violated parents' constitutional rights to direct their children's upbringing and teachers' rights to the free exercise of religion and speech.
Benitez, a George W. Bush appointee, granted summary judgment to the plaintiffs on Dec. 22, 2025.
He ruled that the policies unconstitutionally interfered with parental rights under the First and 14th Amendments and issued a statewide permanent injunction.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals later stayed the injunction, but the Supreme Court reinstated it in a 6-3 emergency order in early March, citing its prior decision in Mahmoud v. Taylor, a 2025 parental rights case involving religious opt-outs from school curriculum on gender and sexuality topics, as supporting precedent for parents' rights to direct their children's upbringing and religious development in this context.
In the fee ruling, Benitez described the case as concerning "a very important subject" involving families' religious free exercise rights and parents' authority over their children's health and well-being.
He noted the litigation's length, which began in 2023 and remains pending on appeal, as a factor in the award size. The judge also criticized state officials for tactics he said wasted judicial resources, including arguments later withdrawn as "inarguably meritless."
Plaintiffs, represented in part by the Thomas More Society, sought roughly $4.55 million under a federal statute allowing fee recovery by prevailing parties in civil rights cases. The court approved $4,526,888 after reviewing hours and rates. Benitez applied a 1.25 multiplier to the lodestar calculation, citing the case's constitutional significance and exceptional results.
Peter Breen, executive vice president and head of litigation at the Thomas More Society, said in a statement that the award signals consequences for policies that infringe on parental rights.
The fee order does not resolve the full appeal.
The case remains before the 9th Circuit, with potential further review possible at the Supreme Court. As of April 1, the injunction blocking the policies is in effect following the high court's intervention.
Jim Thomas ✉
Jim Thomas is a writer based in Indiana. He holds a bachelor's degree in Political Science, a law degree from U.I.C. Law School, and has practiced law for more than 20 years.
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