Supreme Court rejects Gloucester County’s request in trans student case
Lawyers representing school board argue they're overstretched by their work on North Carolina's HB 2 case
Another blow for Gloucester County School Board. as they continue to fight against giving transgender student Gavin Grimm equal access to facilities.
U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts has rejected a request to extend the deadline by which the board must formally ask the court to hear their appeal. Lawyers for the board had hoped to extend that deadline to Sept. 28, but will only have until Aug. 29 to file a petition for writ of certiorari, reports The Huffington Post.
By filing a petition, the board and its lawyers would ask the Supreme Court to review an April ruling by the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The Fourth Circuit decided in that ruling that Grimm had a right to sue the Gloucester County School Board over its restroom policy for transgender students under Title IX, and to obtain a court order that would keep the board from barring Grimm from the boys’ restroom while his lawsuit was making its way through the courts.
If the Supreme Court chooses to review the Fourth Circuit decision, the writ sought by the board would require the Fourth Circuit to turn over all documents related to the the case, after which the Supreme Court would determine whether the Fourth Circuit ruled correctly.
In the meantime, because the Supreme Court has temporarily blocked an order that prevented the school board from enforcing its policy, Grimm will continue to be banned from using the boys’ restroom when he returns to school next month.
In its request for an extension, lawyers for the school board argued that their small law firm was unable to balance both this case and a pending case involving North Carolina’s HB 2 law. The school board’s lead counsel, Kyle Duncan, and his partner, Gene Schaerr, are helping defend state lawmakers against a lawsuit brought by the Department of Justice that argues that HB 2 violates part of the Civil Rights Act.
The board’s legal team also argues that the court should review the Fourth Circuit’s decision in the Grimm case because it involves major legal issues that will likely reappear in future court challenges. Such issues include the weight that court’s must give to a federal agency’s interpretation of a statute, or whether transgender individuals are protected by laws prohibiting sex discrimination.
But lawyers from the American Civil Liberties Union and ACLU of Virginia, representing Grimm, argued that the board has “had ample time to prepare its petition for certiorari and has no excuse for delaying until the last minute.” They also argue that the longer the high court takes to decide whether to review the Fourth Circuit’s decision, the more likely it is that Grimm, who may be eligible to graduate a semester early, will have graduated by the time that appeal is resolved.
“G. experiences irreparable harm each day the School Board’s policy forces him to use separate single-stall restrooms that no other student is required to use,” Grimm’s legal team wrote in its response to the board’s request. “G. experiences painful urinary tract infections as a result of trying to avoid the humiliation of using separate restrooms. And uncontested expert testimony states that ‘[t]he shame of being singled out and stigmatized in his daily life every time he needs to use the restroom is a devastating blow to G.G. and places him at extreme risk for immediate and long-term psychological harm placing G.G. at risk for accruing lifelong psychological harm.'”
Gavin’s Story: Gavin Grimm is the new face of the transgender movement
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