The Supreme Court on Monday rejected an appeal from January and Jeffrey Littlejohn of Tallahassee, Florida. The couple sued the Leon County School District in 2021, alleging that teachers and administrators violated their parental rights after speaking with their daughter about a so-called gender support plan without their consent.
The Supreme Court did not give a reason for its rejection.
This leaves in place a decision by the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals that sided with the school district.
Though Harry Mihet of Liberty Counsel, a Christian law firm involved in family and transgender issues across the country, calls it an unfortunate decision, he says it is not exactly a victory for the other side.
"This was merely a punt by the Supreme Court refusing to get involved, and in so doing, the Court didn't bless the school policies that had allowed the school to secretly transition this minor child without the parent's involvement," he explains. "The Court simply left for another day to decide the legality of those policies."
He says the silver lining is that the Littlejohn case prompted the Florida Legislature and governor to pass a law preventing schools from doing what the Tallahassee school did.
"There is a law on the books now in Florida that makes it illegal for teachers and for school personnel to secretly transition children without their parents' knowledge or consent," Mihet reports. "That came about because of this case, so, all is not lost."
He says other state legislatures can act as Florida did, and Aaron DiPietro, legislative affairs director for Florida Family Voice, is "optimistic" that the Supreme Court will take up similar cases in the future.
"There's just a plethora of cases from across the nation of situations similar to the Littlejohn case, where school districts are blatantly disrespecting and disregarding parental rights," DiPietro tells AFN.
School administrators were attempting to socially transition the Littlejohns' daughter behind their backs by referring to the child by her name in front of the parents, but then calling her another name and recognizing another gender behind the parents' backs.
DiPietro says they were "engaging in blatant disrespect, blatant deception and misleading of the parents," which caused a lot of harm and trauma.
"So, I am disappointed that the Supreme Court did not take up this case, but I am hopeful and optimistic that similar cases will eventually get to the Supreme Court," he tells AFN.
He says this has been a trend with several other issues that the Supreme Court has tackled over the past few years; the first few preliminary cases that came to the bench were turned down for one procedural reason or another, but the Court eventually took up similar cases to affirm the proper positions on respecting parental rights and parental oversight.
January Littlejohn appeared alongside Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-Florida) in March 2022 at a signing event in Tallahassee for the Parental Rights in Education law. DeSantis cited her family's experience as part of his remarks supporting the legislation.
President Donald Trump also spoke highly of Littlejohn during a joint address to Congress in 2025.
