Will They Push It To The Supreme Court?

When a federal court ruled in favor of Gavin Grimm it was the beginning of a long court battle that is still going on and my guess is that it will go to the Supreme Court a second time.

Federal Appeals Court Backs Gavin Grimm in Long-Running Transgender Case
Education Week
By Mark Walsh 
August 26, 2020


A federal appeals court on Wednesday held in the long-running case of transgender student Gavin Grimm that his Virginia school district violated the equal-protection clause and Title IX when it barred him from the boys restroom when he was in high school.

A panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit, in Richmond, Va., also ruled 2-1 that the Gloucester County district violated Grimm's rights by refusing to amend his school records after Grimm, who was assigned female at birth, had chest reconstruction surgery and the state amended his birth certificate to "male."

"At the heart of this appeal is whether equal protection and Title IX can protect transgender students from school bathroom policies that prohibit them from affirming their gender," U.S. Circuit Judge Henry F. Floyd wrote for the majority in upholding a series of federal district court decisions in favor of Grimm in 2018 and 2019. "We join a growing consensus of courts in holding that the answer is resoundingly yes."

This case has been going on since 2015 and it is amazing how many time this case has been bounced from court to appeals court to Supreme Court to appeals court and the courts have ruled in our favor each time. 

"I see little distinction between the message sent to Black children denied equal treatment in education under the doctrine of 'separate but equal' and transgender children relegated to the 'alternative appropriate private facilitites' provided for by the board's policy," Wynn [Judge James A. Wynn Jr. who was appointed by President Obama] said.

The Gloucester County School Board is fighting as it is going down and not giving up. They lost just about every retrial and appeal but I think that they will again try to go before the Supreme Court.

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While we are the subject of courts, the Trump administration and the Republicans have been packing the courts with anti-LGBTQ judges and what will happen if this goes on for another four years?

What a second Trump term could mean for LGBTQ people
LGBTQ people would likely see their rights further chipped away.
VOX
By Katelyn Burns
August 26, 2020


At the Republican National Convention this week, Republicans are making the case for giving President Donald Trump four more years in the White House. While Trump himself doesn’t often comment publicly on queer or transgender issues, Vice President Mike Pence has a long record of anti-LGBTQ lawmaking and rhetoric, and LGBTQ advocates have already called the Republican Party platform — a holdover from 2016, as the GOP did not write one for 2020 — one of the most anti-LGBTQ in the party’s history.

Trans people have been a target of the Trump administration from the get-go. Almost immediately after Trump took office in 2017, the administration rolled back an Obama-era memo directing schools to protect trans students from discrimination. That July, Trump announced his decision to ban trans people from serving in the military. In May 2018, the administration went after trans prisoners, too, deciding that, in most cases, trans people should be housed according to their assigned sex at birth. Just weeks ago, the Department of Housing and Urban Development proposed a rule that would allow homeless shelters that receive federal funding to house trans people according to their birth-assigned sex.
[…]
The courts are key to queer and trans rights
If elected president, former Vice President Joe Biden has promised to immediately reverse the military ban and reissue an Obama-era guideline allowing trans students to use the correct bathroom. This would effectively end litigation in the military ban cases and change the complexion of the bathroom cases.

However, a second Trump term would mean more anti-LGBTQ federal judges appointed, possibly a Supreme Court justice or two, and an escalation in the legal arguments against trans rights, legal advocates say.

The bulk of Trump’s anti-LGBTQ actions have come through administrative rules, most of which have been challenged in federal court. Because of this, Trump’s control over federal policy has been solidified by appointing conservative judges. As of July, 194 of the 792 active federal judges were appointed by Trump — that’s a quarter of the federal judiciary — according to Pew Research data. Many of them were either previously anti-LGBTQ activists or who openly express anti-LGBTQ sentiments.

It is the courts!

The Republicans know that. That is why Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell blocked President Obama court appointments and even blocked President’s Obama Supreme Court nomination. The Constitution says that the Senate must confirm court nominations but the Senate Majority Leader refused to do his constitutional responsibility.

The next President of the United States will probably nominate two more Supreme Court justices one replacing Justice Ginsburg. We cannot let Trump nominate them!