WASHINGTON, D.C. The Supreme Court has allowed California schools to tell parents if their children identify as transgender without waiting for the student's approval.

Granting an emergency appeal from a conservative legal group, the court order on March 2 blocks, for now, a state law that bans automatic parental notification requirements if students change their pronouns or gender expression at school.

The divided ruling came after religious parents and teachers challenged California school policies that stop schools from telling families if a student changes their gender identity at school. Two groups of Catholic parents, represented by the Thomas More Society, said the policies led schools to mislead them and secretly support their children's social transition even though they objected.

California argued that students have a right to keep their gender identity private, especially if they are afraid their families might reject them. The state said its laws and school policies try to balance students' privacy with parents' rights.

A majority of the Supreme Court of the United States sided with the parents. The justices restored a lower-court order that blocks the law and school policies while the legal fight continues.

In an unsigned opinion, the majority said the parents have sincere religious beliefs about sex and gender and feel a duty to raise their children according to those beliefs. The court said California's policies go against those beliefs and burden the parents' right to freely practice their religion.

The court's three liberal justices disagreed publicly. They said the case is still being handled in lower courts, and there was no urgent need for the high court to step in. Justice Elena Kagan wrote that the court should not quickly overturn a state's policies when normal legal procedures are available.

Conservative Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas said they would have gone further and supported teachers who wanted restrictions on them lifted as well.

The Thomas More Society called the ruling "the most significant parental rights decision in a generation."

In recent years, the Supreme Court has often ruled in favor of religious plaintiffs. In one case, it allowed parents to remove their children from public-school lessons if they objected to books with LGBTQ+ characters.

The California order comes just months after the court upheld state bans on certain gender-identity-related medical treatments for minors. The justices also appear open to allowing states to ban transgender athletes from competing on girls' sports teams.

Policies involving transgender students have come before the court in other cases, too. In December, the court declined to take up a similar case from Wisconsin, though three conservative justices said they would have heard it. Justice Samuel Alito called such school policies "an issue of great and growing national importance."

The justices are also considering whether to hear cases from states such as Massachusetts and Florida, where parents claim schools supported their children's social transition without informing them.

Meanwhile, in January, the Trump administration said California's policies violated parents' rights to access their children's education records. The United States Department of Justice also filed a lawsuit, saying that state policies on transgender athletes break federal civil rights law.