Oregon parents again tried to keep transgender students from using school bathrooms, and the Supreme Court wouldn't even hear the case

• The Supreme Court denied an appeal on Monday from Oregon parents attempting to bar transgender students from using bathrooms corresponding with their gender identity.
• In the appeal, three parents and two parent organizations claimed that the school district's policy violated the US Constitution and the Title IX federal statute which protects students against discrimination.
• By rejecting the appeal, the Supreme Court upheld the previous decision of a federal appeals court decision to throw out the case entirely.
• The decision was announced on the birthday of the late Aimee Stephens, a transgender activist whose Supreme Court case in 2020 granted protections for transgender people in the workplace.

The US Supreme Court rejected an appeal Monday brought by an anti-LGBT group, letting stand a lower court ruling that allows transgender students to use whichever bathroom corresponds to their gender identity instead of their assigned sex at birth.

The case was first brought in 2017 against the Dallas School District in Oregon after it allowed a transgender student to use male restrooms and locker rooms at his high school. The parents alleged that the transgender student's use of gender-corresponding bathrooms violated the constitution and Title IX, a federal statute that protects against discrimination in schools. In February 2020, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed that the school district's policy was permissible.

The decision was announced on December 7, coinciding with the 60th birthday of the late Aimee Stephens, a transgender funeral director who was fired for being transgender at her workplace. After reviewing her case in 2020, the Supreme Court ruled that transgender people and gender identity are protected under the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Bostock v. Clayton County ruling, which protects employees from discrimination based on their sexual orientation.

The Obama administration previously issued guidance in 2016 to public school systems to allow transgender students the ability to use restrooms and locker rooms that match their gender identity. Following the administration's decision, the Supreme Court agreed to hear an appeal from a Virginia school board seeking to bar a transgender student from using their gender identity-designated bathroom, but court justices later dropped the case after the guidance was quickly rescinded in the second month of the Trump administration.

According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, North Carolina is the only state to have passed legislation restricting access to bathrooms and sex-segregated facilities on the basis of gender or sex assigned at birth, rather than gender identity. The legislation was later repealed in March 2017.

The Supreme Court's rejection of the case comes just six weeks before the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden, who promised throughout his campaign that he would increase protections for transgender Americans.

When asked about his plans to protect transgender people at a town hall in October, Biden told a member of the audience with a transgender daughter that his administration would protect the rights of transgender people in the country.

"I would just flat-out change the law," Biden said. "I would eliminate those executive orders, number one."

Weeks after his electoral victory, Biden tweeted that he planned to fight for transgender people in the US on his first day in office.