The Atlanta Gleaner.

Legal News

Edited By George Washington

(Testing in progress)

George Washington Statue at Federal Hall

Adamsv.Sch. Bd. of St. Johns Cnty.

CourtUnited States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
Docket No.No. 18-13592
DecidedDecember 30, 2022
Reporter57 F.4th 791; 2022 U.S. App. LEXIS 35962; 29 Fla. L. Weekly Fed. C 2011; 2022 WL 18003879
JudgesEn banc Eleventh Circuit: William Pryor, C.J., and Wilson, Jordan, Rosenbaum, Jill Pryor, Newsom, Branch, Grant, Luck, Lagoa, and Brasher, JJ. Judge Lagoa authored the court’s opinion and a separate concurrence. Judges Wilson, Jordan, Rosenbaum, and Jill Pryor filed dissents; Judge Jordan’s dissent was joined by Judges Wilson and Rosenbaum, and Judge Jill Pryor’s dissent was joined by Judge Rosenbaum in specified parts.
Tags
CivilTitle IXEqual ProtectionTransgender RightsPublic Schools11th Circuit En Banc
Case Summary

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.

Opinion

Loading published copy…

The Far Side