POLITICO: THE CULTURE WAR GOES TO COURT

DRIVING THE DAY— HAKEEM IN THE HOUSE: In the spirit of his predecessor, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries is making a fundraising swing through the Golden State this week. He was in Sacramento last night for a DCCC benefit organized by Rep. Doris Matsui at the home of Mary Gonsalves and Jason Kinney, who hosted Nancy Pelosi last year for a fundraiser at their home.

THE BUZZ — A Southern California school board is barred from forcing schools to out transgender students to their parents — for now.

In the ongoing push-and-pull between conservative board members and the state’s top officials, California Attorney General Rob Bonta notched a preliminary — but notable — win Wednesday. A San Bernardino Superior Court judge issued a temporary restraining order against the Chino Valley Unified School District, halting a new policy that requires schools to notify parents if their child requests to be identified by a gender other than what is on their official documents — what Bonta and others call “forced outing.”

The decision is the first indication that Chino Valley’s policy — and similar ones adopted by conservative school boards elsewhere in the state — might be illegal.

“While this fight is far from over, today’s ruling takes a significant step towards ensuring the physical, mental and emotional well-being of transgender and gender-nonconforming students,” Bonta said in a statement.

Judge Tom Garza granted the temporary restriction, indicating the state demonstrated its likelihood of success on the merits of its challenge, which asserts the policy violates the privacy and equal protection rights of students.

Because the school board’s policy specifically applies to gender identity, which is protected from discrimination under California law, the school board could face an uphill battle in justifying its policy, said Jennifer Pizer, chief legal officer for Lambda Legal.

“I think the burden of persuasion on [the school board] to justify this is high,” Pizer said. “And together with these anti-transgender statements, it makes it extra difficult.”

Lawmakers in the nation’s liberal bastion have wrestled with the best way to respond to the local policies, which have put schools on the frontlines of the culture wars. Just Wednesday night, a familiar scene played out in Rocklin, a Sacramento suburb where school board members spent hours hearing testimony from parents and protesters before passing their own policy, similar to Chino Valley.

Democrats in the Legislature this session briefly considered stepping into the fray with their own response but have decided for now to let the state’s top legal officer handle it in the courts. Even Gov. Gavin Newsom — notorious for taking hardline stances in the culture wars — has kept a low profile on this one. Asked if he had a comment on the ruling, his office referred us to the Department of Justice.

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