The Supreme Court says it will decide whether the Obama administration may require public school systems to let transgender students use bathrooms that align with their gender identity, putting the court again at the center of a divisive social issue.
The Washington Post reports the justices accepted a petition from Gloucester County, Virginia, where a school board was told it did not have to comply with a lower court’s order to allow a 17-year-old transgender student to use the bathroom that corresponds to his gender identity.
The student had sued the school board, alleging that the board’s policy—requiring that students use bathrooms corresponding with their “biological sex”—is discriminatory and violates his civil rights.
A lower court had previously sided with the student, deferring to the Obama administration’s position that Title IX, the federal law banning sex discrimination in public schools, protects the rights of transgender students to use school bathrooms that align with their gender identity. The case has moved through the ranks of the court system since that time.
The Obama directive has sparked a backlash and a lawsuit by several states—including Louisiana—that argued the administration had overstepped its authority.
