Supreme Court lets stand Pennsylvania school district's bathroom accommodations for transgender students

WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court refused Tuesday to second-guess a Pennsylvania school district's policy that allows transgender students to use bathrooms matching their gender identity.

The action, with no noted dissents, represented a victory for the transgender rights movement and a defeat for religious conservatives who say birth gender should determine which bathrooms and locker rooms students use.

The Boyertown Area School District was sued by six current and former high school students who objected to the rule on privacy grounds. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit ruled for the district last year. 

The issue of transgender bathroom use was elevated in 2016 when President Barack Obama's administration advised school districts nationwide to let students use facilities corresponding to their gender identity. President Donald Trump's administration rescinded that guidance the next year.

That effectively ended Virginia high school student Gavin Grimm's Supreme Court case against the Gloucester County School Board, which had denied him the right to use the bathroom of his choice. The Supreme Court wiped out a lower court's ruling in his favor in 2017, rather than hearing his appeal.

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Grimm's case remains alive in federal district court in Virginia, where a trial is set for July.

The Supreme Court in January allowed Trump's partial ban on transgender people serving in the military to take effect while court challenges continue, despite the objection of the court's four liberal justices. That left legal questions surrounding the Pentagon's policy unresolved for now.