Citing the appeals court ruling, Doumar issued the injunction in June, clearing the way for Grimm to start using the boys’ restroom when school resumes in September.
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It’s not clear if the vote would have gone differently if President Obama’s Supreme Court nominee, Merrick Garland, had already been on the bench.
In Wednesday’s order, the Supreme Court said it had granted the school board’s request to “stay the mandate” of the 4th Circuit, “pending the timely filing and disposition of a petition for a writ of certiorari”. Breyer, who dissented in a 2008 ruling upholding Indiana’s voter ID law, is less likely to provide a fifth vote to keep the North Carolina law in place, especially after appellate judges said it was enacted to make it harder for African-Americans to vote.
The National Center for Lesbian Rights filed an amicus brief in the Fourth Circuit case on behalf of the World Professional Association of Transgender Health and other medical and mental health organizations, explaining the current medical consensus that being treated the same as other youth is critical to a transgender young person’s long term health, well-being, and social development. Until then, the Supreme Court’s take on the relationship between transgender identity and sex discrimination would remain unknown. Given Breyer’s note, the justices who agreed to grant the stay are himself, Roberts as well as U.S. Associate Justice Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas and Anthony Kennedy.
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”. Every day that discrimination is allowed to continue, transgender students are put at risk of harm.
Acting on a 5-3 vote, the Supreme Court put the lower court’s groundbreaking decision on hold as the school board appeals the case. School administrators have a responsibility to advance policies that enrich all of their students – including their transgender students.
‘It’s very stressful and humiliating, ‘ Grimm told ABC previous year. It argues allowing Grimm to use the boys’ bathroom would violate the privacy rights of other students.
Block said that Grimm “is a boy and lives accordingly in all aspects of his life” but that “the sex assigned to him at birth was female”. As per the department, Title IX should be honored: no sexual discrimination on schools that receive federal funding would be practiced or tolerated. The judge said he would rule on the request shortly.
A lawyer for Grimm said he and his client were “disappointed that Gavin is going to have to begin another school year being stigmatized and separated from his peers as a result of this policy”.
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Student Gavin Grimm, who was barred from using the boys’ bathroom at his local high school in Gloucester County, Virginia, U.S.is seen in an undated photo.
