Chris Brook, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union whos leading the litigation challenging the North Carolina law, declined to discuss specifics about what his legal teams next move would be.
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A federal court on Tuesday ruled in favor of a Virginia transgender student who sued his school over restroom access as the debate following North Carolina’s perceived anti-LGBT law continues. “House Bill 2 was our effort to stop this insanity, and I hope this proves the bathroom safety bill has nothing to do with discrimination and everything to do with protecting women’s privacy and keeping men out of girls’ bathrooms”.
The federal government could take the extreme measure of pulling billions of dollars in funding from North Carolina if it finds the state isn’t complying with national laws.
McCrory signed HB2 into law after a $42,000 emergency legislative session called to nullify a Charlotte ordinance that would have given transgender residents the option of using public facilities that corresponded with their gender identity. If you are a recipient of federal education funds you can not discriminate..
“Because we conclude the district court did not accord appropriate deference to the relevant Department of Education regulations, we reverse its dismissal of G.G.’s Title IX claim”, Judge Henry Floyd, an Obama appointee, wrote in the appellate opinion.
LGBT advocates celebrated Tuesday’s court decision and were hopeful that it would help turn back the tide of efforts by state lawmakers to get bathroom restrictions on the books.
“I suspect that the issue is not finally resolved”, DeGroff said.
The en banc review the School Board is requesting would be a rehearing of the case by all nine judges on the appeals court.
“Today’s ruling makes plain what we’ve been saying since the day that HB2 was introduced in the legislature: that it violates Title IX”, he said in a phone interview. While the Fourth Circuit decision will dramatically shift the legal landscape across the country, it holds particular importance for any future cases that will be heard in the Southern states that fall within the Fourth Circuit – including North Carolina, home of the vicious anti-trans law HB2, and SC, which is now considering a virtually identical bill.
The North Carolina law has sparked protests and economic boycotts in the state. The decision prompted swift condemnation from the state’s Republican leaders. North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory told reporters earlier this week that he is considering how his state should respond.
The student is identified as G.G.in the opinion, but as Gavin Grimm in news accounts, including by Education Week’s Evie Blad in her Rules for Engagement blog. 2 that requires students who use multiple occupancy bathrooms or changing facilities in public schools to use the facility matching their biological sex.
When Gavin Grimm, a transgender high school student who was born female, began using the boys’ bathroom at his Virginia school, he expected some difficulties.
The majority agreed with the Justice Department that only recently have some school districts sought to use the decades-old Title IX guidance to support policies restricting bathroom use by transgender students to their biological sex.
On another issue, the appeals court ordered the trial judge to reconsider his refusal to issue an order that would allow Grimm to use the boys’ restrooms immediately.
But the litigation surrounding transgender bathroom use is “far from over”, according to Matt Staver, a lawyer with the evangelical Christian Liberty Counsel, which has backed efforts to remove transgender protections.
“This whole thing has been very hard”, said Grimm.
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“Matters like identity and self-consciousness are something that most kids grapple with in this age range”, Grimm said in January.
