Case Database

What’s at stake: Protecting trans students from “forced outing” policies. Summary: In 2023, Temecula Valley Unified School District adopted a forced outing policy. The rule required schools to inform a student’s parents or guardians if they requested to use a name or pronoun, or access...

What’s at stake: The rights of transgender students in South Carolina to use restrooms consistent with their gender identity. Summary: In 2020, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit confirmed that transgender students must be allowed to use restrooms consistent with their gender...

What’s at stake: Whether Florida can ban transgender teachers from using pronouns and titles that best express who they are. Summary: Katie Wood is a 10th grade algebra teacher in a Florida public school. She is also a transgender woman. Her students have always addressed...

“John Doe,” an asylum-seeker attending elementary school within the School District of Philadelphia, was harassed by classmates based on his perceived sexual orientation and national origin. His mother, Leslie Hernández, encouraged John to ask his principal for help. Rather than provide support to stop the...

Doe v. Horne Megan Roe and Jane Doe are 11- and 15-year-old girls who want to try out for their schools’ girls’ volleyball, soccer, and cross-country teams. But a new Arizona law would prevent them from doing so because they are transgender. They challenged the...

In 2021, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services issued guidance about discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. Two Texas-based doctors filed a lawsuit challenging that guidance, arguing that healthcare providers can lawfully discriminate against LGBTQ patients, so long as they equally mistreat both “biological men” and...

Becky is a 12-year-old girl who wants to run for her middle school’s cross-country and track teams. But a new West Virginia law would ban her from doing so because she is transgender. Becky challenged the law in court, and Public Justice has joined an amicus brief to support her...

This federal civil rights case involves the tragic death of Nigel Shelby, a Black, out gay freshman at Alabama’s Huntsville High School who died by suicide at age 15 after experiencing unchecked LGBTQ+ harassment and race discrimination at school. Nigel never felt safe at Huntsville...

Public Justice filed an amicus brief in support of the appellant in Grabowski v. Arizona Board of Regents, a Title IX case. In August 2017, Michael Grabowski enrolled at the University of Arizona as a freshman on academic and athletic scholarships. Almost as soon as...

This was an administrative complaint brought by a parent of Child Doe, a gender non-conforming student. Child Doe, an elementary school student in Crestwood School District, was subjected to unremedied harassment and discriminatory discipline on the basis of their gender identity and expression. Child Doe’s...

Public Justice joined an amici brief to the U.S. Court of Appeals in the Ninth Circuit in support of the plaintiff-appellees, two student-athletes who are challenging an Idaho law that bans transgender women and girls from participating in sports consistent with their gender identity. The...

Public Justice joined an amici brief to the U.S. Supreme Court, then later to the Fourth Circuit, in a lawsuit brought by Gavin Grimm, a transgender boy challenging his Virginia high school’s bathroom policy, which bars transgender students from communal restrooms and forces them to...