On February 19, the Liberty Justice Center and the law office of Nicole C. Pearson, FACTS LAW TRUTH JUSTICE, filed the opening brief in their appeal to the California Court of Appeals, petitioning the court to hear a lawsuit holding Attorney General Rob Bonta accountable for violating state law and abusing his position of power by providing a misleading and biased title to a proposed ballot initiative.
In September 2023, nonprofit group Protect Kids California submitted a proposed ballot initiative for Californian voters’ consideration. If adopted, the initiative would have prohibited the performance of gender reassignment surgery on minors and required school officials to inform parents if their children requested to transition at school. Despite Attorney General Rob Bonta’s legal obligation to provide a neutral title and summary to any proposed ballot initiative, Bonta renamed the initiative the “Restricts Rights of Transgender Youth Initiative”—a misleading and inaccurate title that ensured that the effort to put the measure on the ballot would fail.
The Liberty Justice Center and the law office of Nicole C. Pearson, FACTS LAW TRUTH JUSTICE, filed a lawsuit on behalf of Protect Kids California in February 2024, arguing that Bonta violated state law by assigning a misleading title to the initiative as a result of his bias and vested interest in the legislation’s subject matter. In particular, the lawsuit noted that Bonta is a party in multiple lawsuits regarding parental notification policies and has submitted multiple amicus briefs in related cases.
After a lower court’s dismissal of the lawsuit, the Liberty Justice Center and the law office of Nicole C. Pearson, FACTS LAW TRUTH JUSTICE, are petitioning the California Court of Appeals to take up the case, arguing that the court’s ruling should be overturned because it erred in three ways: by concluding that Bonta’s assigned title and summary were not false or misleading; by accepting Bonta’s false assertion that the proposed initiative did not provide any exceptions for student safety; and by concluding that the initiative aimed to outlaw social transitions when it actually only addressed medical transitions.
“Public officials are obligated to uphold the law at all times—not just when it advances their personal biases. As California’s Attorney General, Bonta has a duty to provide a neutral title and summary to all proposed ballot initiatives, even those he disagrees with. He failed Californians and violated state law by prioritizing political grandstanding above that duty,” said Emily Rae, Senior Counsel at the Liberty Justice Center.
Protect Kids California v. Bonta was filed on February 13, 2024, in the Superior Court of the State of California, County of Sacramento.
The legal filings in Protect Kids California v. Bonta are available here.