The Supreme Court on Monday handed a transgender student a victory when they refused to hear an appeal in a long-running legal battle over a bathroom dispute.
Gavin Grimm was born a female but identified as male after freshman year of high school, legally changed her name and began hormone therapy.
At first the principal at a Gloucester County, Virginia high school allowed Grimm to use the boys bathroom but the school board eventually adopted a policy asserting bathrooms were “limited to the corresponding biological genders.”
The Supreme Court’s refusal to hear the appeal means Grimm’s victory in the lower court remains in place.
The order from the Supreme Court was unsigned, however justices Alito and Thomas said they would have taken up the appeal.
Via WaPo:
As is its custom, the court did not say why it was rejecting the appeal of the Gloucester County school district. Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel A. Alito Jr. said they would have accepted the case. The court’s decision not to take up the case does not establish a national precedent.
In a 2-to-1 decision last August, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit said the school board had practiced sex-based discrimination and violated the 14th Amendment by prohibiting Grimm, a transgender student, from using the bathroom that aligned with his gender identity. His high school offered a single-stall restroom as an alternative.
Gavin Grimm, now 22, celebrated the victory.
I was barred from the bathroom at my highschool 7 years ago, when I was 15. 6 years ago, at 16, myself with the @ACLU/@ACLUVA filed suit in response to that discrimination. Twice since I have enjoyed victories in court, and now it’s over. We won.
— Gavin Grimm 🏳️⚧️ (@GavinGrimmVA) June 28, 2021