The U.S. Supreme Court has decided to take up a Virginia case in which a school district wants to prevent a transgender student from using a boys restroom.
Lower courts have said it’s a civil rights law violation to restrict use of the restroom to “biological males.” The student in the suit, Gavin, is now 17 and has been attending school as a male since his sophomore year.
Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge cheered the decision. She’s joined a group of attorneys general from other states, all Republican except one from Mississippi, who oppose transgender rights. She frames it as a federalism issue. She likes federalism when she likes state and local laws. She’s fighting elsewhere to bring down a Washington civil rights law that prohibits discrimination against gay people. She’s also defending the Arkansas law aimed at protecting those who discriminate against LGBT people.