GLOUCESTER, Va. — The Supreme Court has rejected a Virginia school board’s appeal to reinstate its transgender bathroom ban.
Over two dissenting votes, the justices on Monday left in place lower court rulings that found the policy unconstitutional.
The case involved former high school student Gavin Grimm, who filed a federal lawsuit after he was told he could not use the boys’ bathroom at his public high school.
It goes back to 2014, when Grimm was a 15-year-old student at Gloucester High School.
That year, after he started using the school's men's bathrooms, the school board voted that transgender students would have to either use restrooms that corresponded to their biological sex, or private bathrooms.
The school board said they voted that way to protect students' privacy.
When the case was unfolding, Grimm said he'd had no problem using men's bathrooms in public, and said most of the complaints he faced while trying to use his preferred bathrooms at school were coming from parents, not students.
"It is difficult to face another school year of being singled out and treated differently from other students. I am determined to move forward because this case is not just about me, but about all transgender students in Virginia," Grimm said.
Grimm sued the school district in 2015, with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) representing him. The issue was passed up through the Virginia court systems, with several appeals.
Initially, a federal judge in Norfolk upheld Gloucester's transgender bathroom ban. After that ruling, Grimm's legal team appealed the case.
In 2020, a federal a three-judge panel for the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in Grimm's favor. They said the Gloucester County School Board violated Gavin Grimm’s constitutional rights, and had been discriminatory.
The school board asked for the full 4th Circuit to rehear the case, but that appeal was denied. Then, the group asked for the Supreme Court to hear the case.
Justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas voted to hear the board’s appeal, but ultimately, justices for the nation's highest court decided not to accept the case.
Monday afternoon, the Gloucester County School Board sent out a release saying its members didn't want to comment on the Supreme Court's decision.