Fourth Cir. Ponders What Court Can Hear Trans Policy Grant Suit

Two Northern Virginia school districts asked a federal appeals court Thursday to reopen their suits challenging the US Education Department’s reduction in access to federal funds because of their respective transgender student policies.

A Virginia federal district court said the suits belonged in the US Court of Federal Claims, which hears contract breach claims against the government under the Tucker Act. The school districts’ attorney, Timothy J. Heaphy of Heaphy Smith Harbach & Windom LLP, told the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit that the Claims Court can’t give the school districts what they want—a declarative judgment about ...