Supreme Court Declines To Hear Trans-Identifying Student Bathroom Case

The Supreme Court on Tuesday said it will not take up a case involving a trans-identifying female student who was prohibited from using the boys bathroom.

In a blow to the Indiana school district at the heart of the case, the high court decided to let the ruling of a lower court, which sided with the trans-identifying student, stand.

The student, who is represented by Indiana’s American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) chapter, sued the Metropolitan School District in the Indianapolis area back in 2021.

The ACLU said the trans-identifying student, called A.C. in court documents, attended John R. Wooden Middle School in the district and was barred from using the boys’ bathroom and locker room “with other boys.”

Instead, she was required to use the girls’ bathroom or a single-person bathroom in the nurse’s office, “which was far from his classes,” the ACLU claimed.

As a result, the student was “caused irreparable harm,” her parents and the ACLU argued in their suit.

School staff also referred to the student with female pronouns despite objections from her mother and stepfather, court documents claim.

In April, 2022, a federal court granted the student and her family a preliminary injunction.

Then, the case was combined with two other cases of trans-identifying girls who also sued their Indiana school districts over bathroom use. All three female students have changed their birth certificates to indicate that they identified as a male.

In August, a panel of three judges with the Chicago-based 7th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that since the three trans-identifying students “appear to be boys in the eyes of the State of Indiana” it would be contrary to state law for the school districts to require them to use the girls’ bathroom.

Now that the Supreme Court has refused to take up the case, the ruling of the 7th Circuit will stand.

A spokesperson for Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita, who supported the school district, criticized the Supreme Court’s decision, saying the court did not take a “necessary opportunity to provide clarity.”

“Unfortunately for now, our schools will be forced to allow transgender students to use whichever bathroom they feel corresponds to the gender identity they’ve picked to use on that day. We will continue our fight so regular, common-sense Hoosier parents can raise their children free of this toxic transanity,” the spokesperson told Fox News.

The Supreme Court has proven reluctant to take up cases involving trans-identifying people in recent years.

The court has declined to intervene in other cases involving another bathroom dispute and a case involving a trans-identifying man who claimed he had been denied cross-sex hormones in jail. The court also refused to allow West Virginia to enforce its trans-identifying athlete ban.

Several states have new laws or policies prohibiting trans-identifying K-12 students from using the bathroom of the opposite gender. In Indiana however, attempts to pass such a law have been blocked by Democrats.