The US Supreme Court recently declined to review an appeal from an Indiana public school district regarding a judgment that deemed the district’s transgender bathroom policy to be illegal. The Metropolitan School District of Martinsville’s policy disallowed transgender students from using bathrooms that align with their gender identity.
In late summer, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that this policy had infringed upon the students’ rights. The court pointed out that Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, which disallows sex-based discrimination in federally-funded educational environments, and the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, which mandates equal legal protection for all individuals, safeguard the rights of students to use bathrooms that are consistent with their gender identity.
The lawsuit albeit, initially filed against the school district in December 2021 by a transgender minor and his parents. A district court issued an injunction mandating the school to permit the student access to the boys’ bathrooms. On appeal, the circuit court sustained the order. The Supreme Court chose not to provide any comments while refusing to hear the case, thereby allowing the lower court’s ruling to stand.
Several states have seen related challenges to transgender students’ right to use bathrooms that correspond with their gender identity surface in recent years. In August for example, a federal judge dismissed a challenge brought against an Ohio school district’s gender-inclusive bathroom policy. However, transgender rights remain a subject of ongoing litigation. In December, a federal judge blocked some provisions of an Iowa law that sought to prohibit school libraries from distributing books that cover LGBTQ issues. The governor of Ohio also vetoed a legislation that aimed to bar gender-affirmative treatments for minors and the participation of transgender athletes in girls’ and women’s school sports.
According to the ACLU, as many as 278 bills have been introduced by state legislatures targeted at LGBTQ issues for the 2024 legislative session. This follows closely on the heels of an emergency being declared for LGBTQ individuals in the United States by the Human Rights Campaign, an LGBTQ rights advocacy group.