Timothy R. Snowball
Tim Snowball serves as Senior Counsel at Liberty Justice Center, where he fights to keep government power in check while protecting the individual constitutional rights of Americans.
On August 4, 2026, the Liberty Justice Center issued letters to the attorneys general of New York, New Jersey, Illinois and Washington, warning them that hundreds of their school districts are violating the U.S. Constitution and federal law by hiding students’ gender transitions from their parents.
Parents have a fundamental right under the First and Fourteenth Amendments to direct the upbringing, care and education of their children. Schools that hide information regarding children’s mental health from their parents unduly burden those parents’ constitutional rights. The Supreme Court’s recent order in Mirabelli v. Bonta reaffirms that parents have the right to raise their children—not the state.
The Liberty Justice Center’s letters also explain that school districts that create or enforce policies designed to conceal records concerning a child’s request to use a different name, pronouns or gender identity at school may violate the federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA).
FERPA guarantees parents the right to access their children’s education records at schools that receive federal funds. Any school-created or school-maintained records concerning a child’s social gender transition fall within FERPA’s definition of “education records” and therefore must be made available to the child’s parents.
The letters make clear that states cannot override those federal protections. As the Supreme Court made clear over 200 years ago in McCulloch v. Maryland, the Constitution and valid federal law supersede conflicting state law. Recent federal cases have also recognized that federal parental rights cannot be displaced by conflicting state law. New York, New Jersey, Illinois and Washington should not wait for courts to tell them the same thing.
The Liberty Justice Center previously sent a similar letter to California Attorney General Rob Bonta. More than 600 California school districts violate the Constitution, and the U.S. Department of Education has already found California’s Department of Education in violation of FERPA.
“Parents want what is best for their children and have the fundamental right to direct their upbringing and education,” said Timothy Snowball, Senior Counsel at Liberty Justice Center. “By withholding information from parents, these school districts are violating parents’ constitutionally protected rights. They have been warned.”
These letters are the latest effort under the Liberty Justice Center’s PARENTS initiative. PARENTS is a new project focused on defending parents when government officials and school bureaucrats try to cut them out of decisions about their children. PARENTS serves as a legal watchdog and rapid-response litigation initiative for parents, school boards and communities facing unlawful policies that hide critical information from families.
The Liberty Justice Center is urging all four attorneys general to immediately advise school districts in their respective states to comply with federal law. These policies violate parents’ rights under the First and Fourteenth Amendments and put school districts at risk of federal investigations and lawsuits.
Copies of the Liberty Justice Center’s demand letters to the four attorneys general are available here: New York; New Jersey; Illinois; and Washington.
More information about the Liberty Justice Center’s new PARENTS initiative is available here.
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Tim Snowball serves as Senior Counsel at Liberty Justice Center, where he fights to keep government power in check while protecting the individual constitutional rights of Americans.