Despite Republican legislators’ continued threats to block the appointment of a ninth Supreme Court justice, the highest court in the land still has its work cut out for it. This includes its decision to hear a case involving discriminatory bathroom bills barring transgender persons from using public bathrooms in federally-funded schools and elsewhere, which were overturned by the Obama Administration via a complex legal maneuver involving Title IX of the Civil Rights Act. However, instead of taking on every single instance of a bill’s implementation and its being banned by the U.S. Justice Department, the Supreme Court is focusing on a case from Virginia.
According to the New York Times, the Supreme Court will hear a case involving Gavin Grimm (who was born female), Gloucester High School in southeastern Virginia, and opponents of the Department of Education’s peculiar enforcement against anti-transgender bathroom access bills:
The legal question in the case is whether the Obama administration was entitled to interpret a regulation under Title IX, a 1972 law that bans discrimination “on the basis of sex” in schools that receive federal money, as banning discrimination based on gender identity.
In Grimm’s case, Gloucester High originally let him use the bathroom of his choice, but rule changes approved by the school board and an ensuing court battle launched the matter into the national spotlight. So much, in fact, that the Supreme Court will now decide the fate of this young man’s public bathroom access and — considering the use of the Title IX provision — whether or not other transgender students and individuals can use the public restrooms of their choice.
(Via New York Times)
