California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta filed a lawsuit Monday against the Chino school district, ordering an end to a policy that requires notifying parents if their children change their gender identity, alleging it is discriminatory and violates civil rights and privacy laws.
The “parental notification” policy, which has been proposed by a handful of conservative-leaning districts in California, puts transgender and gender-nonconforming students in “danger of imminent, irreparable harm” by potentially forcibly “outing” them at home before they’re ready, according to the lawsuit.
The US is structured so that most of the legislation is (or was, anyway) done at the state level, as part of the whole “laboratory of democracy” thing, per the tenth amendment. The federal level is supposed to be pretty weak, mostly just coordinating between states and on international issues. So according to the design of the various levels of government, it’s correct that the state can override cities. (And in turn, Congress can override the states, but wasn’t supposed to happen that much.)
Of course this hasn’t really worked out in practice, with the federal government assuming more responsibilities. And I’m not saying any of this was a good or bad idea. But that’s how it was designed.