They see legal disputes as an opportunity to plead their case to judges they believe are more sympathetic than California’s legislators — especially judges at the federal level. But he allowed the district to notify parents if children ask to change their school records. The current legal dispute is not the test case that conservatives might have wished for, because it is a matter of state, not federal, law. But one of the California notification policies may eventually be contested in a federal venue, said Erwin Chemerinsky, an expert in constitutional law and the dean of the law school at the University of California, Berkeley. But, in his view, asking to be treated as a different gender doesn’t directly involve physical safety, while sharing that information without a child’s consent could put the child at risk.

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Persons: —, ” Mr, Essayli, Bonta, Shaw, Erwin Chemerinsky, Chemerinsky Organizations: San Bernardino Superior Court, University of California Locations: Chino Valley, California, Berkeley