Supreme Court ruled that a Virginia school board could block a transgender male from using the boy’s bathroom at his school until it decides whether to intervene in his case.
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Just last week, more than 100 pastors in the midwest sent a letter to OH elected officials and school districts, calling for schools to ignore a May mandate from the U.S. Department of Education allowing transgender students to use bathrooms and locker rooms consistent with their gender identity. A subsequent appeal by the school board would then head back to the Supreme Court, which could either refuse to take the case, thereby affirming the appeals court’s decision, or could hear the case and issue a ruling on whether the restroom policy is indeed constitutional. Instead, it rewound the fight to where it was in April before a federal appeals court in Richmond, Virginia, ruled in Grimm’s favor. “In the meantime, I encourage school districts to work towards accommodating all students and keep the best interest of transgender students in mind- especially given the duress that many transgender students are experiencing under HB2”. “But given that Justice Breyer’s vote was only a courtesy, it’s hard to see the court being able to settle this matter until a ninth justice is appointed”, Vladeck said.
This is the first time a lawsuit around trans rights has reached the Supreme Court in the US.
Shannon Minter, legal director for the National Center for Lesbian Rights, said the decision is “disappointing”, but just a “temporary delay” that doesn’t indicate the mindset of the Supreme Court on the issue.
Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan dissented. The Supreme Court will decide to hear a case based on at least four of the eight Justices agreeing to grant the Petition for Certiorari.
Grimm, 16, has been battling with the Gloucester County School Board over his right to use the restroom aligning with his gender identity, not his birth gender.
Among the issues that are central to the Grimm case and similar disputes in North Carolina and elsewhere is whether the Obama administration acted lawfully in its interpretation of Title IX, which prohibits certain kinds of discrimination against students by state and local schools receiving federal funding. In the one-page ruling, Breyer writes that his was a “courtesy vote”, explaining that the stay will “preserve the status quo”.
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The case in the Supreme Court concerns Gavin Grimm, who was born female but identifies as a male and will soon start his senior year at Gloucester High School in southeastern Virginia. Now, like Block stated, he faces a school year with the shame of having to either use the girls’ bathroom or go out of his way to use a private bathroom.
