Washington — The Supreme Court on Wednesday gave the green light for a transgender boy to continue using the restroom at his South Carolina school that corresponds with his gender identity while his legal challenge to a state ban continues.
The court declined a request from South Carolina officials to freeze a federal appeals court decision that blocked enforcement of its policy on transgender students’ restroom use solely against the ninth-grader, identified in court papers as John Doe. The state conditions funding on a school’s compliance with a rule prohibiting transgender students from using the facilities that align with their gender identity.
In an unsigned order, the court said its denial is “not a ruling on the merits of the legal issues presented in the litigation. Rather, it is based on the standards applicable for obtaining emergency relief from this Court.” Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch said they would have granted South Carolina’s request.
“Today’s decision from the Supreme Court reaffirms what we all know to be true: Contrary to South Carolina’s insistence, trans students are not emergencies. They are not threats. They are young people looking to learn and grow at school, despite the state-mandated hostility they too often face,” Alexandra Brodsky, litigation director for Public Justice’s Students’ Civil Rights Project, which is representing the student, said in a statement. “We are so thrilled that our client will continue to be able to use boys’ restrooms while his appeal continues, and hope today’s decision will provide hope to other trans students and their families during these difficult times.”
The restriction was first included by South Carolina’s General Assembly in a spending bill for fiscal year 2024 to 2025. State lawmakers renewed the ban in its latest spending measure for the new fiscal year, and it took effect July 1.
Last November, Doe, a transgender student who was enrolled at a public school in Berkeley County, South Carolina, and his parents filed a lawsuit alleging that the state’s restroom policy violates the Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause and Title IX.
But this summer, after the Supreme Court in June upheld a Tennessee law restricting access to gender-affirming care for minors experiencing gender dysphoria, a South Carolina district court paused Doe’s case and denied a request from Doe to block the measure while litigation continues. The judge’s order also came after the Supreme Court said it will consider in its next term, which starts in October, whether states can prohibit transgender athletes from competing on girls’ and women’s athletics teams.
Doe appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit, and last month, the court granted an injunction as to Doe. The 4th Circuit blocked South Carolina and its Department of Education from enforcing compliance with its policy forbidding transgender students from using restrooms that correspond with their gender identities, but only as applied to Doe.
The 4th Circuit cited in its ruling its 2020 decision in a case brought by Gavin Grimm, a transgender student who challenged his school’s restroom policy. The appeals court found that his Virginia school board’s policy requiring transgender students to use restrooms that correspond with their biological sex was unlawful.
Grimm’s case had been before the Supreme Court in 2017, but the court sent the dispute back to the lower courts. Then, in 2021, the high court declined to take up the case for a second time, leaving the 4th Circuit ruling in Grimm’s favor in place.
In blocking enforcement of South Carolina’s policy against John Doe, the 4th Circuit said that its decision in Grimm’s case “remains the law of this Circuit and is thus binding on all the district courts within it.”
