Jones v. Critchfield

Lambda Legal, Munger Tolles & Olson LLP, and Alturas Law Group, PLLC, filed a federal lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Idaho on behalf of two transgender individuals challenging Idaho House Bill 264, an Idaho law that bars transgender people from using college restrooms that match their gender identity. The plaintiffs are Atlas Jones, a transgender man at Boise State University (BSU), and Sophie Smith, a transgender woman at the University of Idaho who is proceeding under a pseudonym.

H.B. 264, signed into law on April 1, 2025, strips away protections that had been in place at Idaho universities for years. The law forces transgender people to use restrooms that don’t match who they are, seek out scarce single-occupancy restrooms scattered across campus, or simply avoid using restrooms at school altogether. None of these options is safe or workable, and all expose transgender people to harassment, risk outing them, and cause serious mental and physical harm. For years, both BSU and the University of Idaho maintained inclusive policies that allowed transgender people to use restrooms consistent with their gender identity without incident. The law also encourages others to police restroom use by allowing anyone who spots a transgender person in a covered restroom to take the university to court, effectively placing a bounty on transgender people. Lambda Legal argues the law is unconstitutional because it singles out transgender people for unequal treatment and strips them of their right to control private information about themselves, rights guaranteed under the U.S. Constitution and federal civil rights law.

Lambda Legal is asking the court to stop this law from being enforced against these individuals and to declare it unconstitutional. The trial court declined to block the law while the case moves forward, and an appeal of that ruling is pending.