South Carolina filed an emergency petition asking Chief Justice John Roberts to overturn a Fourth Circuit injunction that blocked a bathroom policy as the school year began. The provision, enacted in the July 2024 state budget, conditions 25 percent of school districts' state funding on restricting multi-user restrooms by "biological sex." The dispute originated when parents sued after a transgender boy was suspended for using the boys' restroom; the complaint alleges stigma and violations of Title IX and the Equal Protection Clause. A Fourth Circuit panel cited Grimm v. Gloucester County School Board in blocking the measure, while state lawyers cite United States v. Skrmetti.
South Carolina is pressing the U.S. Supreme Court to immediately reinstate a policy that bars transgender students from using bathrooms that match their gender identity, escalating a fight that could set national precedent for the rights of LGBTQ+ youth. In an emergency petition filed Thursday, state officials urged Chief Justice John Roberts to overturn a Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals injunction that blocked the measure just as the school year began.
The dispute began last November, when the parents of a transgender boy sued after their son was suspended for using the boys' restroom at his Berkeley County middle school. In their complaint, joined by the Alliance for Full Acceptance, the family argued the policy stigmatizes transgender youth and violates both Title IX and the Constitution's Equal Protection Clause. On Monday, a Fourth Circuit panel in Richmond, Virginia, sided with the student, pointing to its 2020 ruling in Grimm v. Gloucester County School Board,
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