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 brief supports the dismissal of lawsuits filed by the Fairfax County School Board and the Arlington School Board regarding student access to bathrooms and locker rooms based on gender identity.
The lawsuits from Fairfax and Arlington argue that Title IX, along with the Fourth Circuit’s 2020 decision in Grimm v. Gloucester County School Board, require schools to allow students access to facilities based solely on self-declared gender identity. However, according to the amicus brief, this interpretation lacks legal basis.
The brief states that “Grimm was a narrow, as-applied ruling about a single student and a single bathroom policy. 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 also notes that despite this limited scope, both school boards have implemented broad policies permitting students’ self-assertion of gender identity as sufficient for accessing private facilities reserved for the opposite biological sex.
According to the brief, Title IX was designed to prevent sex-based discrimination in education and its regulations define “sex” as biological sex. Schools receiving federal funds are required to comply with these established standards.
Attorney General Miyares previously filed two briefs in September opposing efforts by these school divisions to stop the U.S. Department of Education from enforcing federal protections related to women’s access to 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.
