What the Supreme Court’s ruling means for transgender bathrooms in schools
The U.S. Supreme Court
signaled an interest in taking on the transgender bathroom debate on Wednesday,
granting a Virginia school system temporary permission to keep its bathrooms
separated by biological sex.
In a 5-3 vote, the justices
issued a stay in
the case involving a transgender student in Gloucester County who is suing his
school board to gain access to the boys’ restrooms. The stay halts a lower
court’s order that said the school board must allow the transgender teen, Gavin
Grimm, into the bathroom that corresponds with the student’s gender identity.
Gavin, 17, was born female
but now identifies as a male.
If the Gloucester County
school board’s petition for the Supreme Court to hear the case is denied, the
stay will terminate automatically, and Gavin will be allowed to use the boys’
bathroom. If the court decides to take the case, the stay will remain in effect
until the justices reach a final decision.
The lawsuit alleges that by
prohibiting Gavin from using the boys’ restrooms, the school board’s policy
violates Title IX, the federal statute that bans discrimination on the basis of
sex.
The U.S. District Court in
Eastern Virginia initially rejected that argument, and sided with the school
board’s claim that Title IX does not protect against discrimination based on
gender identity. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit disagreed, and
issued an injunction that required the school to allow transgender students to
use restrooms in accordance to their gender identity.
Some in the lesbian, gay,
bisexual, and transgender movement downplayed Wednesday’s decision, calling it
“just a temporary delay.”
“Across the country, courts
and policymakers are recognizing that discrimination against transgender people
is sex discrimination,” Shannon Minter, legal director for the National Center
for Lesbian Rights, said in a prepared statement. “We are confident that if and
when this issue reaches the Supreme Court, the court will affirm that
recognition.”
Conservatives, however,
call the decision a significant step in their direction.
“It’s significant that the
Supreme Court said we’re going to put a hold on that — we’re going to preserve
the status quo as it’s always been in society, as it’s always been in schools,”
Jeremy Tedesco, a lawyer at the Christian legal group Alliance Defending
Freedom, told The Daily Signal. “That boys use boys’ restrooms and girls use
girls’ restrooms.”
The implications, Tedesco
added, could reach far beyond Gavin and other students in Gloucester County.
In directing schools
nationwide to open their showers, bathrooms, and locker rooms to students of
the opposite biological sex, the Obama administration cited the Gloucester
case.
The Department of Education
wrote that its interpretation “is consistent with courts’ and other agencies’
interpretations of federal laws prohibiting sex discrimination,” and linked to
the case.
A total of 24 states are
now challenging the legality of the administration’s mandate, in addition to
dozens of private legal battles playing out nationwide.
“The Department of
Education — in all the litigation that’s going on across the country and in
their major, chief mandate that they sent out nationally to all the schools
saying that Title IX requires schools to allow students of one sex to enter
locker rooms and bathrooms of students of the opposite sex — they’re all
relying on the Gloucester decision from the 4th Circuit to say that’s
required,” Tedesco said. “What the Supreme Court has done is thrown that
decision into serious doubt.”
Tedesco, who is involved in
several of these challenges, said the decision is “a really important outcome”
for Alliance Defending Freedom’s case in Illinois.
In that case, 50 families
in the Chicago area are suing the Department of Education and the Justice
Department for threatening to take away federal funding if the school does not
comply with the Obama administration’s interpretation of Title IX.
Lawyers for the Obama
administration, Tedesco said, “have been citing the Gloucester decision over
and over again for why they should win.”
Now, he said, “it’s going
to be a lot more difficult for them to rely on that case, with the Supreme
Court putting the entire decision on hold and calling it into question.”
Gloucester County, located
about 140 miles south of Washington, D.C., and just north of Newport News,
Virginia, has more than 5,000 students in its eight public schools.
The Gloucester County
school board welcomed Wednesday’s decision, saying in a press release that it
“continues to believe that its resolution of this complex matter fully
considered the interests of all students and parents in the Gloucester County
school system.”
Josh Block, a lawyer for
the American Civil Liberties Union representing Gavin, said he was disappointed
by the decision because it will leave Gavin isolated from the rest of the
student body.
Gavin
was preparing to begin his senior year with a fresh start. He would finally be
able to use the restroom without being isolated. Even if the Supreme Court
ultimately decides to let the lower court’s decision stand, Gavin will have had
to spend most of his senior year forced to use a separate restroom from the
rest of his classmates, simply because of who he is.
The high court’s four
conservative-leaning justices all voted in favor of the stay. They were joined
by Justice Stephen Breyer, who wrote that
he granted the stay “as a courtesy” in order to “preserve the status quo.”
Only four justices are
needed for the Supreme Court to review a case, making it likely that the
bathroom fight could be decided soon.
