WASHINGTON, D.C. – The U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments in the lawsuit between the Gloucester County School Board and transgender student Gavin Grimm on March 28, 2017.
Grimm, 17, was born a female, but has the gender identity of a male.
The teen sued the Gloucester County School Board in 2015 when his school stopped allowing him to use the boy’s restroom. The Gloucester County School Board enforced a policy that requires transgender students to use a separate restroom from their peers.
The ACLU and the ACLU of Virginia brought the lawsuit on behalf of Grimm, arguing that the school board’s policy, which segregates transgender students from their peers by requiring them to use “alternative, private” restroom facilities, violates the U.S. Constitution and Title IX, a federal law prohibiting sex discrimination by schools.
A lower court had ruled in favor of Grimm, but last summer the Supreme Court agreed to temporarily stay that ruling while it considered an appeal from the Gloucester County School Board.
The case marks the first time the Supreme Court has considered the controversial issue playing out across the country, most notably in North Carolina, where the Justice Department has filed a civil rights suit against the state’s so-called bathroom law.
Grimm is barred from using the boys’ bathroom unless and until the high court rules in his favor. He is currently allowed to use a private bathroom at the school.
The CNN Wire contributed to this article.
