Judge blocks school bathroom bill just as classes start

A federal judge has blocked a law in Idaho that targets transgender students a month after it went into effect. The ruling came a week before classes started for the new school year.

The law bans trans kids from using school facilities that align with their gender identity and offers children a $5,000 bounty for reporting trans students who use the restroom that matches their gender identity.

Related Stories Judge tells anti-trans parents to go sit down & leave the kids alone

The federal court told them to mind their own business.

“The court’s ruling will be a relief for transgender students in Idaho, who are entitled to basic dignity, safety, and respect at school. When school is back in session, they should be focusing on classes, friends, and activities like everyone else, rather than worrying about where they are allowed to use the restroom,” said Lambda Legal Senior Counsel Peter Renn. “No one’s return to school should be met with a return to discrimination.”

Get the Daily Brief The news you care about, reported on by the people who care about you.

But the temporary restraining order only maintains the status quo. Some schools have inclusive policies in place, but others do not.

“Simply put, the status quo concerning bathroom usage in Idaho schools was diverse; but no law, no restriction, and no mandate dictated those policies,” Chief U.S. District Judge David C. Nye wrote in his order. “In other words, keeping the status quo at this stage is doing just that: leaving schools to their own devices without any input from the state of Idaho, and without any formal regulations one way or the other.”

He also asserted that the ruling isn’t a determination of whether or not the law is unconstitutional or the merits of either side’s arguments.

The complaint charges that S.B. 1100 violates the Equal Protection and Due Process Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 by discriminating on the basis of sex and transgender status and by outing students as transgender.

“The lives and wellbeing of our transgender youth in Idaho are at stake, and we are relieved that the court has put this abhorrent law on hold,” Lambda Legal Staff Attorney Kell Olson added. “Transgender youth are deserving of the privacy, respect, and protections afforded to other students.”