Politics

Appeals Court Blocks State Law Keeping Boys Out Of Girls’ School Bathrooms

(Photo by Leonardo Munoz / AFP)

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Brandon Poulter Contributor
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A federal court blocked an Idaho law on Thursday that would prevent male students from using female bathrooms and locker rooms, according to the Idaho Capital Sun.

Lambda Legal, an LGBTQ legal activist group, sued in July to block Senate Bill 1100, which was slated to go into effect Nov. 3, according to the Idaho Capital Sun. The U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals decision to temporarily block the law comes after Lambda Legal appealed a district court’s Oct. 12 decision to deny a preliminary injunction. (RELATED: The Supreme Court Could Decide The Future Of Child Sex Change Bans)

“This ruling is a relief not only for our clients but transgender students across Idaho, that they will be spared the indignity, stigma, and profound harm of this cruel and unconstitutional law as they go about their day at school,” Lambda Legal Senior Counsel Peter Renn said in a press release.

View of an all-gender bathroom sign prior to the start of Day 1 of the Democratic National Convention at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, July 25, 2016. (Photo by Robyn BECK / AFP)

The injunction stops the state government from enforcing the law until the appeals court reviews the ruling for the preliminary injunction request, according to the Idaho Capital Sun.

Lambda Legal represents the Boise High School’s Sexuality and Gender Alliance and a transgender child in the case, according to court documents. The lawsuit alleges that the bill violates the plaintiffs’ constitutional rights and Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972.

Public school restrooms and locker rooms that are accessible by multiple people at the same time must be for use by “male persons only or female persons only,” according to the bill. The law allows students to sue schools that violated the law for a minimum of $5,000 for each instance that a student encounters someone of the opposite sex in the facilities.

Republican Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed a bill in March banning male students from female bathrooms. Students in California protested a transgender bathroom law that allows students to use the bathroom of their choice in May. 

Lambda Legal did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation.

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