The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals heard oral arguments yesterday (Thur) over an Idaho law aimed at preventing transgender students from using bathrooms that align with their gender identity.
Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador, assisted by attorneys from Alliance Defending Freedom, filed a brief in December urging the court to uphold a district court decision that allowed Idaho to protect the privacy, safety, and dignity of all K-12 students in public school’s locker rooms, showers, restrooms, and overnight stays.
Last March, Idaho enacted a law protecting children’s privacy by ensuring that sex-specific facilities in K-12 public schools like showers, locker rooms, restrooms, and overnight accommodations remained sex-specific, while also allowing single-user facilities. Activists sued Idaho State Superintendent of Public Instruction Debbie Critchfield and the state board of education in July demanding that K-12 public schools force girls to share private spaces with boys and vice-versa. After a lower court upheld Idaho’s law, the activists appealed, and the 9th Circuit granted an injunction pending appeal, halting enforcement of the law.
The court will issue a written opinion at a later date.
