“We are seeking immediate relief to stop this law from banishing transgender people from using the same college restrooms as their peers and exposing them to discrimination, harassment, and abuse.”
Lawyers for two transgender plaintiffs today urged the U.S. District Court for the District of Idaho to block temporarily enforcement of an Idaho law that blocks them from using communal restrooms at Boise State University and the University of Idaho.
Today’s hearing concerned Jones v. Critchfield, the lawsuit filed in late July by Lambda Legal, Munger Tolles & Olson LLP, and Alturas Law Group, PLLC, challenging Idaho House Bill 264, a discriminatory and draconian law signed by Idaho Gov. Brad Little on April 1.
“Idaho has doubled down on its cruel and unconstitutional attacks on transgender people,” said Lambda Legal Senior Counsel Peter Renn. “In addition to previously banning transgender high school students from communal restrooms, state legislators have decided to target transgender college students and workers, who – let’s be clear – have been using the restrooms matching their gender without incident for years. It is reprehensible that politicians keep singling out transgender people for harmful, discriminatory treatment. Today, we asked the court for immediate relief to stop this law from banishing transgender people from using the same college restrooms as their peers and exposing them to discrimination, harassment, and abuse.”
HB 264 imposes a sweeping statewide mandate requiring that all public colleges and universities, among other places, must exclude transgender people from multi-user restrooms matching their gender identity, based on a legislative definition of “sex” as limited to one’s reproductive system at birth. For many years, schools such as Boise State University have adopted inclusive policies and practices which have allowed transgender people to use bathrooms matching their gender identity. The policies have been in place without incident, underscoring the state legislature’s determination to create an issue where none existed.
To magnify the chilling effect of the law, much like the earlier ban governing K-12 schools, HB 264 allows any person to seek declaratory and injunctive relief, plus attorney fees, in court if they encounter a transgender person using a facility barred by the law.
“There is no reason to keep me and other transgender students from continuing to use the same college restrooms as our peers, which the school has allowed for years,” said Atlas Jones, a 19-year-old rising sophomore at Boise State University and the lead plaintiff in the lawsuit. “It is humiliating, distracting, and exhausting to try to make it through the day as a college student without having proper access to restrooms.”
“There is no evidence that inclusive policies allowing transgender people to use restrooms consistent with their gender have caused any problems. For years, colleges and universities in Idaho have successfully implemented inclusive policies that have helped make transgender students feel safer and more welcome at school,” Lambda Legal Counsel Kell Olson added. “It is time for politicians to stop using transgender people as a wedge issue for political gain.”
The lawsuit, Jones v. Critchfield, was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Idaho on behalf of Atlas Jones, a transgender man, and a transgender woman who is proceeding anonymously. The complaint charges that HB 264 violates the Equal Protection and Due Process Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by discriminating on the basis of sex and/or transgender status, and by outing individuals as transgender.
Read about the case here. Read about Lambda Legal’s earlier lawsuit challenging the K-12 school bathroom ban, Sexuality and Gender Alliance v. Critchfield, here.
The attorneys working on the case include: Lambda Legal Senior Counsel Peter Renn, Counsel Kell Olson, Senior Counsel Tara Borelli, Senior Attorney A.D. Lewis, and Renberg Fellow Pelecanos; co-counsel at Munger Tolles & Olson LLP; and co-counsel at Alturas Law Group, PLLC.