Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares has announced that the state is leading a coalition of 21 states in submitting an amicus brief to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. The coalition urges the court to uphold the dismissal of lawsuits filed by the Fairfax County School Board and Arlington School Board, which argue that Title IX and a previous court decision require schools to allow students access to bathrooms and locker rooms based on self-declared gender identity.
According to the amicus brief, the 2020 Fourth Circuit decision in Grimm v. Gloucester County School Board was limited in scope, applying only to a specific student and bathroom policy. The brief asserts that “the court did not hold that schools must open all sex-segregated facilities to any student based on self-identification, and it explicitly did not address locker rooms or changing areas.” It further notes that despite this limitation, both Fairfax and Arlington have implemented policies permitting students’ self-assertion of gender identity as sufficient grounds for accessing private facilities reserved for the opposite biological sex.
The brief also emphasizes that Title IX was designed to prevent discrimination based on biological sex in educational settings, stating: “Its regulations were written with the understanding that ‘sex’ refers to biological sex. When schools accept federal funds, they agree to comply with these clear, longstanding requirements.”
In September, Attorney General Miyares had previously filed two briefs opposing efforts by these school divisions to prevent the U.S. Department of Education from enforcing federal protections related to women’s access in school bathrooms, locker rooms, and changing areas.
States joining Virginia in filing this latest brief include Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah and Wyoming.
