Activists had all eyes on on the US Supreme Court as it prepared to hear the case of 17-year-old Gavin Grimm, a transgender boy suing his Virginia high school for not allowing him to use the bathroom of his choice, later this month.
It would’ve been the first time that the highest court in the land had ever taking up the issue of transgender rights.
But the court announced today that it won’t hear the case after all—a decision that comes juts two weeks after US president Donald Trump issued new guidance about transgender bathroom use. The case will go back down to a lower court, which will have to consider it anew.
Somewhat convoluted is the sequence of events that led things here. Last year, president Barack Obama’s administration announced that public schools must allow transgender students to use the bathroom of their choice to keep in line with the federal education anti-discrimination policy known as Title IX. (Obama’s education department even threatened to withhold federal money if schools did not comply.)
The lower court used the Obama administration’s interpretation of Title IX to side with Grimm in this case, Gloucester County School Board v. Gavin Grimm. Then, last month, Trump’s administration rescinded Obama’s interpretation, claiming there is need ”to more completely consider the legal issues.”
In short: Because the Supreme Court is declining to hear the case, the lower court is now being asked to reconsider its own decision, with the court’s previous supporting evidence—the federal government’s approval of Title IX covering transgender-bathroom usage—essentially being rendered invalid.
More than 50 major US companies, including Apple, Yahoo, and IBM, had pledged their support to Grimm and other transgender students. So, too, did Trump’s new education secretary Betsy DeVos—until she was reportedly pressured into changing her mind.