The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals Tuesday denied a request for the full court to rehear a case in which a three-judge panel had sided with a transgender student in a bathroom dispute.
After the panel found that the Gloucester County School District had violated Title IX nondiscrimination protections by barring a male transgender student from using the male restroom, the district's school board asked all 15 judges in the circuit to review the case. From the ALCU press release:
The court today denied the Gloucester County School Board’s request for an en banc review of an April decision which held that Title IX protects the rights of transgender students to use school restrooms consistent with their gender identity.
“Now that the Fourth Circuit’s decision is final, I hope my school board will finally do the right thing and let me go back to using the boys’ restroom again,” said Gavin Grimm, the high school junior who is the plaintiff in the case. “Transgender kids should not have to sue their own school boards just for the ability to use the same restrooms as everyone else.”
The school board could appeal the April ruling to the Supreme Court, but the likelihood of the court hearing the case seems low. The Fourth Circuit decision was a first-of-its-kind ruling and the justices would be more likely to take up the question if a different appeals court ruled another way, producing a circuit split on the issue.