Gloucester County School Board v. G. G.: Brief for Professors Samuel Bagenstos, Michael C. Dorf, Martin S. Lederman and Leah M. Litman as Amici Curiae in Support of Respondent

Authors

Samuel Bagenstos, University of Michigan Law School
Leah Litman, University of Michigan Law SchoolFollow

Document Type

Brief

Publication Date

3-2-2017

Abstract

Amici are legal scholars who teach and write on constitutional law and civil rights law. They submit this brief to call attention to a means of resolving this case not presented by the parties or other amici.

Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 provides that in a school district receiving federal financial assistance, "[n]o person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, . . . be subjected to discrimination." 20 U.S.C. § 1681(a).

As applied to transgender students, however, such segregation on the basis of sex-on the basis of anatomical differences in external reproductive organs-does subject them to "discrimination," and is therefore prohibited in schools receiving federal funds, because the profound and uncontroverted harms it inflicts upon transgender students cannot be justified by the interests that might otherwise support this particular, traditional practice of sex-based segregation, or by the other institutional interests on which the Gloucester policy here is expressly predicated. Strikingly, the Board makes no effort at all to demonstrate to this Court that excluding Gavin from the "male" restrooms is necessary to accomplish the stated reasons for its exclusionary policy-i.e., "to provide a safe learning environment for all students and to protect the privacy of all students" (J.A. 16 (quoting Gloucester policy)). It is no accident that the Board does not attempt such a showing, because relegating transgender students such as Gavin to stigmatizing single-stall restrooms plainly is not necessary in order for the Board to realize those goals.

Comments

Amicus: Bagenstos, Professor Samuel; Dorf, Professor Michael C.; Lederman, Professor Martin S.; Litman, Professor Leah M.

Recommended Citation

Bagenstos, Samuel and Litman, Leah, "Gloucester County School Board v. G. G.: Brief for Professors Samuel Bagenstos, Michael C. Dorf, Martin S. Lederman and Leah M. Litman as Amici Curiae in Support of Respondent" (2017). Appellate Briefs. 33.
https://repository.law.umich.edu/briefs/33