Supreme Court Refuses To Take Case on School Bathroom Usage

Bianca Harkless

Editor-In-Chief

On December 7th, 2020, the United States Supreme Court refused to see a case that would challenge school’s bathroom policies on transgender student. The case was trying to push for students to use the bathroom that corresponded to their gender identity.

While this topic is not new to the Supreme Court, parents from the state of Oregon decided to challenge their previous standing on issues, pushing for their child to use the bathroom which corresponded to his gender identity, according to a cnn.com article talking about the situation. A petition was formed but was seen as unlikely to do anything due to the thresholds it had to meet. One of these thresholds talked about a policy made five years prior for a specific student, who was spoken about as “Student A,” that has now graduated from an Oregon high school. The policy stated that they were able to use the bathroom they identified with.

When the justices refused the cases, they stated they were trying to “avoid discrimination and ensure the safety and well-being of transgender students.” Judge Atsushi Wallace Tashima claimed that the policy allows students to use a school bathroom and locker room that matches their identity, like their cisgender counterparts, in order to not infringe on the fourteenth Amendment, parental rights, or the first amendment. The decision was taken without comment or noted dissent. The American Civil Liberties Union, ACLU, a non-profit organization that strives for a equality and to protect the people of the United States from civil rights violation, claimed the justices’ meant that “transgender youth are not a threat to other students.”

While the case was refused, it seems that people are making their own assumptions about what the court meant by their decision to pass on the case. There is a good chance citizens of the United States will see more of these cases before the situation can be completely settled, but for now the Supreme Court has yet to update their statement on it.

Image Credit: Juan Marin on Unsplash