Appeals Court Blocks South Carolina School Bathroom Ban, Allows Trans Student to Use Restrooms Matching Gender Identity
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit has enjoined the State of South Carolina, a South Carolina school district, and other defendants from denying a transgender boy access to boys’ restrooms at school when he starts high school today. The appeals court granted an injunction pending appeal in a lawsuit challenging the state’s discriminatory law excluding transgender public school students from using restrooms matching their gender identities.
The lawsuit — filed in November 2024 on behalf of the teen, a proposed class of transgender public school students in South Carolina, and social justice organization Alliance for Full Acceptance — challenges a ban first enacted in July 2024. The ban requires all K-12 public schools in the state to exclude transgender students from using restrooms that correspond to their gender identities — or lose a quarter of all state funding.
The Fourth Circuit, whose opinions are binding in South Carolina, has already held that such bans violate the U.S. Constitution and Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972.
The lead plaintiff, known as John Doe in the lawsuit, is a teenage boy living in Berkeley County, South Carolina. Because of the ban, John’s middle school suspended him for using boys’ restrooms at the beginning of the 2024-2025 school year. His parents later withdrew him from the school because it threatened John with escalating discipline — including potential expulsion—if he continued to use boys’ restrooms. John has re-enrolled in the district and will start ninth grade today.
“South Carolina’s school bathroom ban is illegal, plain and simple,” said Alexandra Brodsky, Litigation Director for Public Justice’s Students’ Civil Rights Project. “Back in 2020, the Fourth Circuit held that trans students have the right to use restrooms that align with their gender identities, and it reaffirmed that rule in granting an injunction today. We are so thrilled that our client will be able to start high school this week without state-mandated discrimination.”
“As transgender students’ legal rights are under attack across the country, it is heartening that a federal appeals court has confirmed that John has the right to go to school as the boy that he is,” said Joseph Wardenski, Principal of Wardenski P.C., a civil rights law firm.
Public Justice, along with law firms Correia & Puth, Wardenski P.C., and Milberg Coleman Bryson Phillips Grossman, PLLC, represent the plaintiffs and proposed class.
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