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Weekend Circuit: Transgender Bathroom Case To SCOTUS, Tom Brady, And Website Trespassing

Gavin Grimm YouTube screenshot/WAVY TV 10

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Kevin Daley Supreme Court correspondent
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This is Weekend Circuit, a weekly review of the serious and the silly in federal appellate courts.

SCOTUS to review transgender bathroom case

The U.S. Supreme Court will review an emergency petition from a Virginia school district seeking to prevent transgender students from using the bathroom of their choice. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit declined to stay its previous ruling that trans student must be allowed to use the bathroom of their choice. (RELATED: Transgender Bathroom Case Heading For Supreme Court)

The case was occasioned when Gavin Grimm, a 17-year-old transgender student in the Gloucester County Public Schools system, wanted to use the men’s bathroom. Grimm was born female but identifies as male. Gloucester Country schools require transgender students to use alternative restrooms. The Fourth Circuit found that the school must follow Department of Education Title IX guidance requiring schools allow students to use the bathroom corresponding to their gender identity.

The school district filed an emergency petition for a stay and asked the Supreme Court to take up the case.

It’s a crime to visit a website if the owner asks you not to

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled Tuesday it is a federal crime to access a website knowing the site’s proprietor asked you not to visit the page.

Facebook recently brought a claim against Power Ventures, a company that aggregates social media contacts. Power Ventures continued accessing Facebook’s server even after receiving a cease-and-desist letter from the company. The Ninth Circuit found in Facebook v. Vachani that, after receiving the cease-and-desist letter from Facebook and proceeding with normal operations anyway, Power ran afoul of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. (RELATED: It’s Now A Federal Crime To Visit Someone’s Website If They Tell You Not To)

“I think this decision is wrong, and that it has big implications going forward,” Orin Kerr, a George Washington University law professor who specializes in computer crime, wrote on the blog Volokh Conspiracy. “If read broadly, the case seems to say that if you want to make it a crime for someone to visit your website, you just need to give them notice that you don’t want them to visit,” he said.

Brady’s Deflategate appeal denied – last chance is SCOTUS

The U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals denied Tom Brady’s appeal for a rehearing of the so-called “Deflategate” case Wednesday, leaving him the last-ditch effort of petitioning to the U.S. Supreme Court to try avoiding a four-game suspension. (RELATED: Tom Brady’s ‘Deflategate’ Appeal Denied, Last Chance Is Supreme Court)

Brady’s legal team, led by former U.S. Solicitor General Ted Olson of Gibson Dunn, petitioned the Second Circuit for a rehearing of the case en banc — in which the case would have been re-argued and re-decided before every appeals judge in the circuit. There is no right to a hearing en banc, and the petitions are rarely granted since they’re reserved for cases of significant constitutional consequence.

Brady’s petition for a stay and for the Court to hear the case will be reviewed by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who handles emergency appeals arising from the Second Circuit.

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