Supreme Court declines Indiana school's appeal on transgender bathroom order

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected an Indiana public school district's request to defend a policy that restricted bathroom access by sex.

The justices declined to hear an appeal by the Metropolitan School District of Martinsville after a lower court ruled that a middle school's policy, which barred transgender students from using facilities like bathrooms or locker rooms that align with their self-professed gender identity, violated students' constitutional rights and ran afoul of federal anti-discrimination law.

Attorneys for the school district had asked the court to "preserve the autonomy of school boards to make decisions."

A 2023 ruling by the Chicago-based 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said a student, identified in court papers as "A.C.," is protected under a law called Title IX, which bars sex discrimination in education, and by the Constitution's 14th Amendment requirement that people be protected equally under the law.

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The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected an Indiana public school district's request to defend a policy that restricted bathroom access by sex. (Reuters/Jonathan Ernst/File)

The Supreme Court did not issue a comment on its decision. The high court has in recent years mostly dodged controversial cases involving transgender rights.

A spokesperson for Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita, who supported the school district's lawsuit, criticized the Supreme Court for refusing to weigh in.

"The Supreme Court did not take a necessary opportunity to provide clarity, particularly with such a split among the appellate courts on this issue. It makes little sense for SCOTUS not to resolve the difference in federal cases — but because of this split — children in other parts of this country will be properly protected," the spokesperson said in a statement to Fox News Digital. 

"Unfortunately for now, our schools will be forced to allow transgender students to use whichever bathroom they feel corresponds to the gender identity they've picked to use on that day. We will continue our fight so regular, common-sense Hoosier parents can raise their children free of this toxic transanity," the spokesperson added.

Republicans in several states have pursued various laws that affect transgender people, including policies that reinforce bathroom and locker room segregation by sex, school sports participation, access to sex-reassignment medical procedures for minors, and restrictions on what schools teach about sexual orientation and gender identity.

The Indiana case involved a 13-year-old gender dysphoric student whose mother sued the school district and middle school principal after her child was prohibited from using boys' facilities.

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The Supreme Court has declined to hear an appeal brought by the Metropolitan School District of Martinsville, Indiana, after a lower court blocked the district from enforcing a policy that requires transgender students to use bathrooms based on their biological sex. (Fox News Digital)

In 2022, U.S. District Judge Tanya Pratt ruled in favor of A.C., ordering the school to allow bathroom access that corresponds with the student's gender identity. The 7th Circuit affirmed Pratt's ruling, prompting the school's appeal to the Supreme Court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority.

The school district argued in a court filing that Title IX permits schools to segregate bathrooms by sex and that the equal protection clause does not prohibit schools from protecting the interests of students "in shielding their bodies from exposure to the opposite sex."

Lower courts have issued mixed rulings on school policies that affect transgender students. Last month, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of a school that required transgender students to use gender-neutral bathrooms or those matching their sex, not their gender identity.

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Lower courts have issued mixed rulings on school policies that affect transgender students. (Andrea Ronchini/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Two other federal appeals courts have ruled that transgender students can use bathrooms that accord with their identities.

These cases have put pressure on the Supreme Court to resolve the discrepancies, but the court has refused multiple opportunities to do so.

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In 2021, the Supreme Court left in place a 4th Circuit ruling that favored a transgender student who had sued to use the bathrooms associated with their identity.

More recently, the Supreme Court in April 2023 refused to permit West Virginia to enforce a state law that banned transgender athletes born as males from participating in female sports in public schools.

Fox News Digital's Jamie Joseph, Andrew Mark Miller and Reuters contributed to this report.