The Supreme Court put a temporary hold Wednesday on a court order that would have allowed a transgender Virginia teen to use the bathroom consistent with his gender identity. Adam Liptak writes:
The vote was 5 to 3, with Justice Stephen G. Breyer joining the court’s more conservative members “as a courtesy.” He said that this would preserve the status quo until the court decided whether to hear the case. Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan dissented.
The court’s order has no effect on any other case.
The temporary hold was not a ruling on the merits of the case but it will block the teen, Gavin Grimm, from using the boy's restroom when he returns to school in the fall. The original order came from the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, which had sided with Grimm in his lawsuit against the Gloucester County School Board's policy prohibiting him from using the male restroom. The three-judge panel ruled in April that policy was a violation of sex discrimination under Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972.