The Supreme Court has opted not to hear an appeal in a case concerning a lower court ruling that found an order mandating transgender-identifying students to use school bathrooms aligned with their biological sex violated constitutional rights and federal anti-discrimination law.
The lawsuit originated in 2022 when the parent of a seventh-grade student, identifying as a transgender boy, challenged the school district’s policy preventing her child from using a male bathroom. The parent prevailed in the initial lawsuit, and the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the order requiring schools to permit transgender students to use bathrooms aligning with their gender identity.
The school district justified its original policy by invoking Title IX, which allows schools to segregate bathrooms based on sex to ensure students can change and shower without exposure to the opposite sex. The district poised the question to the Supreme Court, “whether Title IX or the equal protection clause dictate a single national policy that prohibits local schools from maintaining separate bathrooms based on students’ biological sex.”
Indiana’s Attorney General Todd Rokita criticized the Supreme Court’s decision not to hear the case, stating, “Unfortunately for now, our schools will be forced to allow transgender students to use whichever bathroom they feel corresponds to the gender identity they’ve picked to use on that day. We will continue our fight so regular, common-sense Hoosier parents can raise their children free of this toxic transanity.”
This marks another instance where the Supreme Court has chosen not to intervene in transgender-related legal matters. At least nine states across the country have aggressively pursued legislation designed to protect individuals areas separated by sex, particularly women who could be preyed upon by biological men.
As this becomes a more common occurrence in American life, it seems more likely that the Supreme Court will need to eventually weigh in.
