Adamsv.Sch. Bd. of St. Johns Cnty.
Drew Adams, a transgender boy, challenged a St. Johns County school policy that assigned bathroom access by sex recorded at birth and required him to use a single-stall, sex-neutral restroom instead of the boys’ restroom. After a bench trial, the district court ruled that the policy violated Title IX and the Equal Protection Clause and enjoined its enforcement against Adams. Sitting en banc, the Eleventh Circuit reversed. The majority held that Title IX permits schools to separate bathrooms by biological sex and that the policy’s classification survived intermediate scrutiny because it was substantially related to students’ bodily-privacy interests; it also rejected the equal-protection claim. Judge Lagoa concurred separately, and four judges dissented, reasoning that the policy excluded Adams as a transgender boy and that the School Board had not met its burden to justify that treatment. The court reversed the district court’s judgment and remanded.
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