The legal
fight over transgender bathroom rights reached the U.S. Supreme Court for the
first time on Wednesday as a Virginia county school board sought to block an
order that lets a student who was born a girl but now identifies as male use
the boys' bathroom.
Transgender rights have become
an increasing divisive issue in the United States, and the use of public
bathrooms has been a key part of the controversy.
The Gloucester County School
Board filed an emergency application with the Supreme Court in a bid to prevent
high school student Gavin Grimm, 17, from using the boys' bathroom when school
resumes in September while litigation in the case continues.
The American Civil Liberties
Union sued on behalf of Grimm to challenge the school board's bathroom policy,
which requires transgender students to use alternative restroom facilities.
A federal appeals court on
Tuesday refused to put on hold a district court's injunction favoring Grimm.
The school board's application
was directed to Chief Justice John Roberts, who has responsibility for
emergency actions that arise from the regional federal appeals court that
covers Virginia. Roberts could act alone or refer the matter to all eight
justices. Five votes are need to grant a stay application.
The school board's lawyers
said in their court filing that the lower court had given too much deference to
President Barack Obama's administration's view that prohibitions on sex
discrimination under federal law also apply to gender identity.
For decades "our nation's
schools have structured their facilities and programs around the sensible idea
that in certain intimate settings men and women may be separated," they
added. The lower court decision in favor of Grimm "turns that longstanding
expectation upside down," the lawyers wrote.
Some conservative states have
sought to require people to use bathrooms that reflect their gender at birth.
The Obama administration
issued a directive in May telling public schools to allow transgender students
to use bathrooms that correspond to their gender identity or risk losing
federal funding. So far, 23 states have sued to block the directive.
Separately, the Justice
Department sued North Carolina in May over a state law requiring people to use
public bathrooms that correspond to the sex on their birth certificates.
An April ruling by the
Richmond, Virginia-based 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in favor of Grimm
was the first by an appeals court to find that transgender students are
protected under federal laws that bar sex-based discrimination.
(Reporting by Lawrence Hurley;
Additional reporting by Daniel Wiessner; Editing by Will Dunham)
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