SCOTUS Halts SC Ban on Trans Student's Restroom Use

The Supreme Court has allowed a transgender ninth-grader in South Carolina, known as "John Doe" in court documents, to keep using the boys restroom at school while a legal fight over the state's bathroom ban continues. This interim decision comes as Doe challenges a state rule that bars transgender students from using facilities matching their gender identity, a policy tied to school funding and renewed by South Carolina lawmakers for the new fiscal year, per CBS News.

• On Wednesday, the high court declined a request from South Carolina officials to halt a lower court's order that had blocked enforcement of the policy against Doe. In a brief, unsigned order, the justices clarified that their decision wasn't a final judgment on the broader legal questions but rather a temporary move based on emergency relief standards. Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and Neil Gorsuch indicated they would've sided with the state.

• Doe and his parents launched their lawsuit last November, arguing the policy violates the 14th Amendment's Equal Protection Clause and Title IX. The case has seen shifting fortunes. After the Supreme Court in June let a Tennessee law restricting gender-affirming care for minors stand, a district court judge in South Carolina put Doe's case on hold and declined to block the bathroom ban during ongoing litigation.
• However, last month, the 4th US Circuit Court of Appeals issued an injunction specifically for Doe, referencing its own 2020 decision in a similar case involving Virginia student Gavin Grimm. That precedent found policies forcing transgender students to use bathrooms based on biological sex to be unlawful, a ruling still binding in the circuit.
• In a statement cited by SCOTUSblog, Alexandra Brodsky of the Public Justice legal nonprofit, which is representing Doe, says that the new ruling "reaffirms what we all know to be true: Contrary to South Carolina's insistence, trans students are not emergencies. They are not threats. They are young people looking to learn and grow at school, despite the state-mandated hostility they too often face."