US Supreme Court Passes on Transgender Student Bathroom Dispute

The US Supreme Court rejected an Indiana school district’s fight to stop a transgender student from using the bathroom that’s consistent with his gender identity.

The justices on Tuesday refused to review an order from the US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit that blocked the Metropolitan School District of Martinsville from excluding a middle school student from using the boy’s bathroom.

Affirming a trial court decision, the Seventh Circuit ruled the student was likely to win his claims of unlawful discrimination in violation of the US Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause and Title IX, which bans sex-based discrimination in education programs.

The appeals court said its ruling was strengthened by the Supreme Court’s 2020 decision in Bostock v. Clayton County. In that decision, the high court ruled Title VII’s ban on sex discrimination in the workplace protects gay and transgender workers.

The Supreme Court in 2021 rejected an appeal from a Virginia school board after the Fourth Circuit backed Gavin Grimm, a transgender high school student in his fight to use the bathroom that corresponds with his gender identity.

The case is Metropolitan School Dist. of Martinsville v. A.C., U.S., No. 23-392.