Supreme Court to Hear Case on Parents' Standing to Challenge Youth Privacy Law
The Supreme Court agreed in June to hear International Partners for Ethical Care v. Ferguson, a case testing whether parents have legal standing to challenge a Washington state law before any harm from it has occurred. The 2023 law allows youth shelters to notify Washington's Department of Children, Youth and Families rather than a minor's parents when the minor seeks certain protected health care services, a category that includes abortion and gender transition related care. Lower courts dismissed the parents' suit, finding they had not shown a concrete injury since none of their own children had yet been affected. Oral argument is set for December 7.
A coalition of sixteen states filed briefs backing the parents, while Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson and eighteen other state attorneys general, along with national teachers' and school groups, filed briefs defending the law as a needed protection for homeless and runaway youth. The case could decide how early parents may go to court to challenge state policies that touch their children's upbringing, a question with implications well beyond Washington.
