However, the Supreme Court will not act on that request until October, according to NBC News.
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Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan would have denied the stay.
Because of the five to three vote to stay, it is believed the Supreme Court is likely to take up the issue once an appeal reaches the judges.
Breyer is quoted in Politico saying that he agreed to the stay as a “courtesy”, as the Court is still in recess.
The July lawsuit was filed in federal court in Nebraska and included nine other states: Arkansas, Kansas, Michigan, Montana, North Dakota, Ohio, South Carolina, South Dakota, and Wyoming.
“Across the country, courts and policymakers are recognizing that discrimination against transgender people is sex discrimination”, added Minter.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said that “Obama is turning bathrooms into courtroom issues”, while Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said that the directive will be “the beginning of the end of the public school system as we know it”. “The Supreme Court did the right thing in placing the 4th Circuit panel’s mandate and the preliminary injunction entered by the district court on hold until the high court itself has a chance to decide if it will take up this case”, said Alliance Defending Freedom Senior Counsel Jeremy Tedesco in response to the ruling. We are confident that ultimately the Supreme Court will rule in favor of these common sense policies and help transgender students feel comfortable and safe so that they can excel academically in school.
Grimm, who was born female but identifies as male, was allowed to use the boys restroom at his high school for several weeks in 2014.
The case, Gloucester County School Board v. G.G., No. 16A52, was instigated when the local school board in Gloucester, Virginia, adopted a policy that required students to use the bathrooms matching their “corresponding biological genders”. The ruling is based on the Obama administration’s interpretation of the Title IX gender discrimination law.
But on April 19, the U.S. Court Appeals for the Fourth Circuit reinstated Grimm’s Title IX claim, holding that Title IX protects the rights of transgender students to use sex segregated facilities that are consistent with their gender identity. It stirred support from transgender-student advocates and controversy among conservative state leaders, who argued the federal agencies were overstepping their authority by creating a new law instead of interpreting an existing one.
Some in the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender movement downplayed Wednesday’s decision, calling it “just a temporary delay”.
Justice Stephen Breyer said that he joined with the majority as a “courtesy” that will “preserve the status quo” for the time being.
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Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange welcomed the high court’s decision.
