4th Circuit rules for transgender student
Transgender student Gavin Grimm has just chalked up another victory in his years-long challenge to the Gloucester County School Board's policy requiring students to use the restrooms matching their biological sex. Grimm's win, which follows on the heels of a U.S. Supreme Court decision extending Title VII of the Civil Right Act of 1964's protections to LGBTQ employees, marks yet another step in the movement to accord full equality to the community and has significant ramifications for all employers.
Litigation
Grimm's victory occurred on August 26, 2020, when the Richmond-based U.S. 4th Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the 2019 ruling of U.S. District Court Judge Arenda L. Wright that the school board's policy is unconstitutional and violates federal education law. The decision is the most recent in litigation Grimm, a transgender male, filed against the board in 2014. His suit claims the board's policy discriminates against him on the basis of sex in violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution and Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972.
After several rounds in the district court and an appeal to the 4th Circuit, Grimm's case was primed to be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2018. That never occurred, however, because the Trump administration reversed Obama-era guidance advising schools to allow students to use the restroom corresponding to their gender identity. As a consequence, the case was returned to the lower courts to address the matter.
4th Circuit's decision