Court won’t say if trans teen can pick bathroom

Associated Press

WASHINGTON

The Supreme Court is leaving the issue of transgender rights in schools to lower courts for now after backing out of a high-profile case Monday of a Virginia high-school student who sued to be able to use the boys’ bathroom.

The court’s order in the case of teenager Gavin Grimm means that attention now will turn to lower courts around the country that are grappling with rights of transgender students to use school bathrooms that correspond to their chosen gender, not the one assigned at birth.

The appeals court in Richmond, Va., and other appellate panels handling similar cases around the country will have the first chance to decide whether federal anti-discrimination law or the Constitution protects transgender students’ rights.

Monday’s action by a court that has been short-handed for more than a year comes after the Trump administration pulled back federal guidance advising schools to let students use the bathroom of their chosen gender, not the one assigned at birth.

The justices rejected a call from both sides to decide the issue in a case that was dramatically altered by the election of President Donald Trump.

Grimm’s case had been scheduled for argument in late March. Instead, a lower court in Virginia will be tasked with evaluating the federal law known as Title IX and the extent to which it applies to transgender students.

Lawsuits involving transgender students are making their way through the courts in at least five other states: Illinois, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

For Grimm, the order means that he probably will graduate with the issue unresolved. Now, his wish to use the boys’ bathroom is blocked by a policy of the Gloucester County school board.

Although he won a court order allowing him to use the boys’ bathroom at Gloucester High School, the Supreme Court put it on hold last August, before the school year began.