The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to hear an Indiana public school district defending single-sex restrooms.
The Supreme Court has rejected the Martinsville Metropolitan School District's appeal of a lower court's ruling that barring transgender students from using the bathroom of the gender they identify with violates students' constitutional rights and federal anti-discrimination laws. However, there were no comments.
Lawyers for the school district asked the court to “preserve the autonomy of the school board's decisions.”
A spokesperson for Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita criticized the Supreme Court's inaction, saying the court “did not take the necessary opportunity to provide clarity.”
“While it makes little sense for SCOTUS not to resolve differences in the federal case, children in other parts of this country will be adequately protected because of this split,” a spokesperson told the Post. said in an email.
“Unfortunately, for now, our schools will be forced to allow transgender students to use the restroom that is deemed to correspond with the gender identity they choose to use that day. We will continue to fight to help common-sense Hoosier parents raise their children through this toxic transition.”
The case began in 2022 when the mother of a seventh-grade transgender boy, identified in court documents as “AC,” successfully challenged a Martinsville Municipal School District policy that prevented her son from using the boys' restroom. It originated from
According to the lawsuit, AC was diagnosed with gender dysphoria and was in the process of legally changing her name and gender on her birth certificate.
The Chicago-based 7th Circuit Court of Appeals the following year upheld an order allowing schools to use restrooms according to students' gender identity.
The district said Title IX allows schools to provide separate restrooms based on gender, and that equal protection laws allow schools to protect the interests of other students who are “physically protected from contact with members of the opposite sex.” He claimed that nothing could be prevented.
This is not the first time that a lawsuit over transgender rights has been avoided by the Supreme Court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority.
But last year, West Virginia refused to enforce a state law banning transgender athletes from participating in girls' sports teams in public schools. This is one of many Republican-backed measures across the country targeting LGBT rights.
Other federal courts across the country have divided over school policies that require transgender students to use the restroom that corresponds to their birth sex.
The Richmond, Virginia-based Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals found the Virginia school's policy illegal, while the Atlanta-based Eleventh Circuit upheld the Florida school's policy.
At least nine states restrict transgender students from using the restroom that matches their assigned sex at birth.
with post wire
