THE TRANSGENDER BATHROOM CASE WILL BE APPEALED TO FOURTH CIRCUIT: As predicted, the Gloucester County School Board will indeed be appealing the U.S. District Court’s ruling in Grimm v. Gloucester County School Board.
Gavin Grimm is an anatomical female who identifies as a male and who therefore sued the school board for the right to use the boys’ bathrooms, locker rooms and showers. In late May, the District Court agreed that the failure to accord Grimm that right was sex discrimination under Title IX. It held that providing Grimm with private facilities wasn’t good enough.
Peter Kirsanow and I filed an amicus curiae brief on behalf of Gloucester County School Board when this case was before the Supreme Court last year. Back then the case was known by the initials “G.G.” as Grimm was not yet 18 years old. The precise legal issue was a little different then–whether the courts should defer to the Obama Administration’s Dear Colleague Letter in interpreting Title IX. When the Trump Administration withdrew that Dear Colleague Letter, the Supreme Court remanded the case back to the lower courts for reconsideration in light of the Dear Colleague Letter’s withdrawal. But so far at least, that hasn’t changed the outcome.
We will be re-tooling that brief for the Fourth Circuit.