U.S. Supreme Court Rejects Lawsuit and Protects Transgender Students’ Rights in Oregon School District
The U.S. Supreme Court has rejected an appeal that challenged an Oregon school district's policy regarding bathroom use and transgender student accommodations.
The lawsuit, which was brought to the U.S. Supreme Court for review by a parent group, Parents for Privacy, was denied the request for appeal, automatically allowing the ruling from the lower courts to stand. The Supreme Court did not provide a reason for rejecting the review.
Parent Group Files Lawsuit
In 2015, a school district policy in favor of transgender bathroom rights was adopted in the Dallas School District in Oregon after a transgender student at the school transitioned from female to male. The boy described having to do a "walk of shame" every time he dressed out for PE class because the unisex bathroom was a distance away from the locker room and PE room. When the transgender student voiced his concern and discomfort, lawyers for the school district reached out to the school's administration, alerting them that discrimination against transgender students could potentially go against title IX, according to interpretations at that time.
After the transgender student's concerns were heard, the school board adopted an inclusive policy, and the student began using the boy's bathroom and boy's locker room for the next three years up until he graduated.
When the school district implemented the new bathroom policy in support of the transgender student, concern rose among a small group of parents in the school community. Some members of the school community went as far as threatening any student who used a bathroom that didn't align with their biological sex. The school district held firm in its decision that not allowing a transgender student to use the bathroom of the gender they identify with could potentially violate state and federal law.
The plaintiffs in the case, a group of concerned parents, appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court with the following statement at the beginning of its petition for a writ of certiorari: “This Court has the opportunity to untie a Gordian knot of conflicting constitutional and statutory rights and provide critically needed guidance to lower courts grappling with public school policies that seek to accommodate privacy facilities use requests by children who self-identify as something other than their biological sex.”
The plaintiffs are an organization called Parents for Privacy, a small community of parents formed in response to the school district's bathroom policy. The Parents for Privacy group moved forward with a formal lawsuit against the district in 2017. In the lawsuit, the parents argued that the school district’s policy violated the other students’ 14th and First Amendment rights. The parents also argued in the lawsuit that the policy was a violation of Title IX. When the lawsuit was heard in the district court, it was dismissed.
Concerned Parents Appeal to Higher Courts
The case went on to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals where the ruling there was in agreement with the lower court’s decision, allowing the school district policy in support of transgender students to stand.
Judge A. Wallace Tashima of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals summed up the ruling by holding, “A policy that allows transgender students to use school bathroom and locker facilities that match their self-identified gender in the same manner that cisgender students utilize those facilities does not infringe Fourteenth Amendment privacy or parental rights or First Amendment free exercise rights, nor does it create actionable sex harassment under Title IX.”
It was then that the members of Parents for Privacy appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. In their petition to the High Court, they alleged, "The district's directive interferes with parents' rights to direct the upbringing of their children, schoolchildren's rights to bodily privacy, parents' and children's rights to free exercise of religion, and children's rights to be free from hostile educational environments under Title IX.”
Lawyers for the Dallas School District responded to the parents’ appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court with criticism that the parents' claims were “misconceived” because the students who were deemed to be disenfranchised by the transgender bathroom policy have long since graduated from the school district.
The school district policy has received support from both the National ACLU and the ACLU of Oregon. Both groups joined the case on behalf of the non-profit organization, Basic Rights Oregon. The organization is committed to protecting the rights of LGBTQ individuals in the greater Oregon region.
Member of Basic Rights Oregon, Brook Shelley, expressed that the community is “thrilled with the judge’s decision.” Shelly goes on to add that the ruling is one step closer in the right direction because it sends a message to the nation’s school systems that transgender rights should be protected just as transgender students should have access to a safe and equal education.
Transgender Rights Continue to Improve
The U.S. Supreme Court's ruling allowing the Dallas School District policy on transgender bathroom use for students to stay in place is not the first of its kind. In May, the Third U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia rejected a similarly-filed lawsuit.
Although the Trump administration has been vocal about rolling back transgender rights implemented by the Obama administration, this election year has seen an increase in transgender successes, especially among elected office positions. In several states, including Arkansas, California, Colorado, Delaware, Illinois, Kansas, New Hampshire, and Vermont, openly transgender candidates were either elected for the first time or reelected.
