Twenty-six states filed litigation in courts nationwide to prevent the enactment of President Biden’s April 2024 revisions to the Title IX statute aimed at increasing protections for LGBTQIA+ athletes, pregnant and parenting...more
Late last week the Connecticut State Department of Education (“CSDE” or “Department”) issued new guidance addressing the rights of transgender students in Connecticut schools. Entitled Guidance on Civil Rights Protections...more
Adams v. School Board of St. John’s County, 3:17-cv-00739, 2022 WL 18003879 (11th Cir. 2022) Adams, a transgender boy, sued the board of his Florida school district (“the School Board”) after his high school prohibited...more
On June 22, 2021, the United States Department of Education, Office of Civil Rights (“OCR”) and the U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division (“DOJ) issued a joint Fact Sheet addressed to elementary and secondary...more
School’s Policy Prohibiting the Presence of a Transgender Student in the Restroom That Matches Their Gender Identity May Be Unlawful Discrimination....more
We have been speculating for quite some time now about what the U.S. Supreme Court will do with Title IX after its decision last term in Bostock v. Clayton County, Georgia. The landmark Bostock decision held that Title VII of...more
This week, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to review a decision allowing transgender high school students to use bathrooms and locker rooms consistent with their gender identities. The High Court’s rebuff means the lower...more
A federal court in Jacksonville, Florida recently ruled in favor a transgender teenager who wanted to use the boys’ bathroom at his high school. The July 2018 decision marked the first time that a Florida court has ruled on...more
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recently revealed the agency's proposal to narrow the legal definition of sex under Title IX, the federal civil rights law that bans discrimination based on sex in...more
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit has issued its much anticipated precedential opinion upholding denial of a preliminary injunction against a Pennsylvania school district's policy allowing transgender high...more
The protracted case of Gavin Grimm is set to be heard once again by the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. ...more
On February 22, 2017, the Trump Administration rescinded the Obama Administration’s guidance related to transgender students’ access to bathrooms and locker room facilities that align with their gender identity, which was...more
As these authors have previously reported, several cases analyzing whether sexual orientation is protected by Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 have been winding their way through the courts. ...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: On March 6, 2017, the Supreme Court remanded a highly anticipated transgender rights case back to the Court of Appeals after the Trump Administration withdrew Obama era guidance regarding the rights of...more
The U.S. Departments of Justice and Education have withdrawn existing guidance on transgender students and issued a new Dear Colleague Letter calling into question whether Title IX requires that schools permit students to use...more
On February 22, 2017, the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Department of Education (DOE) withdrew their May 13, 2016 “Dear Colleague” letter that provided guidance on steps to protect transgender students under Title IX of the...more
On February 22, the U.S. Department of Education issued its first Dear Colleague Letter guidance of the new administration, rescinding the transgender rights guidance that the Obama administration issued last summer. The...more
On February 22, the U.S. Departments of Education and Justice (“ED” and “DOJ,” respectively, and collectively, the “Departments”) issued a two-page Dear Colleague Letter to “withdraw and rescind” policy and guidance reflected...more
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and Department of Education (DOE) jointly issued a statement rescinding the guidance on transgender students’ rights under Title IX issued to school districts nationwide in May. The prior...more
There has been much speculation about the Trump administration’s position with respect to LGBTQ rights. We may now have our first glimpse. Just days after Jeff Sessions was confirmed as Attorney General, the government has...more
Last week, the United States Senate voted to confirm Betsy DeVos as Secretary of Education. DeVos’ confirmation hearings were contentious, as telephone switchboards in Congress were flooded with constituent calls opposing her...more
On Friday, the Trump administration signaled that it will not defend the guidance given by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and Department of Education (DOE) last May on transgender students’ rights under Title IX of the...more
On October 28, 2016, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear an appeal in the matter of Gloucester County School Board v. G.G., which asks the Court to weigh in on the issue of restroom access for transgender students. The...more
On October 28, 2016, the U.S. Supreme Court granted the petition for a writ of certiorari in Grimm v. Gloucester County School Board, a decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit that marked the first time...more
In an opinion issued yesterday, U.S. District Court Magistrate Judge Jeffrey Gilbert decided that Township High School District 211 “balanced the interests of all its students when it decided to permit transgender students to...more