MINUTE ORDER
SUPERIOR COURT OF CALIFORNIA,
Time: 11:19:45 AM
COUNTY OF SACRAMENTO
GORDON D SCHABER COURTHOUSE
Date: 06/01/2009
Dept: 54
Judicial Officer Presiding: Judge Shelleyanne W L Chang
Clerk: E. Higginbotham,J. Hart
Bailiff/Court Attendant: None
ERM: None
Case Category: Civil - Unlimited
Case Init. Date: 11/12/2008
Event Type: Hearing on Demurrer - Civil Law and Motion - Demurrer/JOP
Case Title: California Education Committee LLC vs. Jack
OConnell in his official capacity as California Superintendent
Case No: 34-2008-00026507-CU-CR-GDS
Causal Document & Date Filed:
Appearances:
Nature of Proceeding: Hearing on Demurrer (Matter Taken Under Submission 5/12/09)
TENTATIVE RULING
The demurrer of Defendant Jack O'Connell, in his official capacity as California Superintendent of Public
Instruction, in support of which Equality California and Gay-Straight Alliance Network filed and served an
amici curiae memorandum, is ruled upon as follows.
The complaint filed by plaintiffs California Education Committee, LLC and Priscilla Schreiber is for
declaratory and injunctive relief. Plaintiffs challenge Senate Bill (SB) 777's "redefinition of the term
'gender'" in the Education Code "both facially and as-applied as it will be impossible for school
administrators and educators to enforce this new definition. Further,
it will be impossible for
administrators and educators to know whether they themselves are violating the nondiscrimination
provisions of the Education Code or the Penal Code." Comp., ¶ 1.
Plaintiffs make the following allegations. SB 777 amended Education Code § 220 to read, "No person
shall be subjected to discrimination on the basis of . . . gender. . . ." SB 777 also added Education Code
§ 210.7, which states that gender "means sex, and includes a person's gender identity and gender
related appearance and behavior whether or not stereotypically associated with the person's assigned
sex at birth." Finally, SB 777 repealed Education Code § 220 which had defined "sex" as "the biological
condition o