New Developments Affecting Grimm Transgender Lawsuit
Issues involving the rights of transgender individuals continue to be in flux. President Trump’s ban on transgender individuals serving in the U.S. military has been stymied by the courts, and several states have enacted legislation prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity discrimination.
Here in Virginia, the efforts of Gavin Grimm to use the high school bathroom that corresponds to his gender identity continues to wend its way through the courts. As DiMuroGinsberg attorney Jayna Genti advises in her article in the November, 2017 issue of the Virginia Employment Law Letter, Grimm’s case is now back in Norfolk federal district court, where the judge presently is considering whether to dismiss the suit because Grimm graduated from high school in June, 2017.
Earlier this year, Grimm’s case was set for decision by the U.S. Supreme Court. At the last moment, however, the high court remanded the case to the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, based in Richmond, for further consideration in light of the position taken by the U.S. Department of Justice that federal education law does not protect transgender students. The Fourth Circuit, in turn, decided that the issues in Grimm’s case should be handled in the first instance by the federal district court in Norfolk, where the case was filed over three years ago.