South Carolina asks Supreme Court to let it enforce trans bathroom ban
A protester holds a sign in support of gender-affirming care for transgender youth outside of the U.S. Supreme Court Building on June 18 in Washington
By John Fritze, CNN
(CNN) — South Carolina officials urged the Supreme Court on Thursday to let it enforce a ban on transgender students using school bathrooms that align with their gender identity, noting that the justices are set to take up a blockbuster appeal dealing with transgender athletes in coming months.
The emergency request seeks to overturn a decision from a federal appeals court earlier this month that barred school officials in a district outside of Charleston from enforcing the ban against a transgender boy who was suspended from school for using the boys’ bathroom.
“This case implicates a question fraught with emotions and differing perspectives. That is all the more reason to defer to state lawmakers pending appeal,” the state told the Supreme Court in the filing. “The decision was the South Carolina legislature’s to make.”
It is the latest of several high-stakes legal cases involving LGBTQ Americans to work its way up to the high court in recent years, during a moment when transgender Americans are facing political and cultural setbacks. Earlier this year, for instance, a divided Supreme Court allowed President Donald Trump’s administration to enforce a ban on transgender service members in the military.
Four years ago, the Supreme Court let stand a decision from the 4th US Circuit Court of Appeals that allowed a transgender student named Gavin Grimm to use a bathroom that corresponded to his gender identity. Though the court’s decision to not hear that case did not set nationwide precedent, the Grimm ruling remains controlling precedent in the 4th Circuit – which covers South Carolina.
In the new appeal, South Carolina officials pointed to the Supreme Court’s high-profile opinion in late June that let stand a Tennessee law that banned puberty blockers and hormone therapy for minors seeking to transition to match their gender identity. They also noted that the high court agreed this summer to decide whether states may ban transgender students from playing on sports teams that align with their gender identity.
The state argued that those two moves have undermined the outcome in Grimm.
Grimm, the state said, “was wrongly decided and should (and may soon) be overturned.”
The South Carolina legislature approved the bathroom ban in a series of budget bills, requiring that single-sex school bathrooms be used only by students of that sex assigned at birth.
An unnamed student, who was in eighth grade when the ban was first enacted, sued along with their parents, alleging that the provision violated both federal law and the Constitution’s equal protection clause. After the Supreme Court agreed to hear the transgender sports case, a federal district court put the bathroom litigation on hold. On appeal, the 4th Circuit unanimously sided with the student and his family, blocking the ban’s enforcement against him.
The boy who filed the lawsuit “is a 14-year-old student who simply wishes to use the restroom. Doing so is a biological necessity. Doing so in restrooms that match his gender identity is his right under our precedent,” Chief Judge Albert Diaz wrote in a concurring opinion.
Diaz, who was appointed to the bench by President Barack Obama, said that South Carolina’s ban “openly defies the law.”
The Supreme Court is likely to decide within a few weeks whether to grant South Carolina’s request or let the lower court’s decision stand.
The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2025 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.
