Attorney General Raúl Labrador successfully defends state law designating sex-specific spaces in schools
[BOISE] – The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit ruled unanimously Thursday to uphold an Idaho law that protects the privacy, safety, and dignity of all K-12 students in public school locker rooms, showers, restrooms, and overnight stays. Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador, together with attorneys from Alliance Defending Freedom, asked the 9th Circuit in December to uphold a district court decision affirming the law while the case proceeds.
Last March, Idaho enacted a law protecting children’s privacy by ensuring that sex-specific facilities in K-12 public schools like showers, locker rooms, restrooms, and overnight accommodations remained sex-specific, while also allowing single-user facilities. But activists sued Idaho State Superintendent of Public Instruction Debbie Critchfield and the State Board of Education last July, demanding that K-12 public schools force girls to share private spaces with males and vice-versa.
“Idaho’s law reflects common sense and biological reality, protecting all students’ privacy and safety in spaces like locker rooms and showers,” Attorney General Labrador said. “Every day, we see more examples of the harms of gender ideology, particularly to women and girls. We applaud the court’s decision to allow our State Board of Education to continue its job of preserving each student’s privacy, dignity, and safety and providing a quality education for Idaho’s children.”
“Idaho’s law protects every student’s dignity and worth by respecting their privacy and safety in locker rooms, showers, restrooms, and overnight stays,” said ADF Senior Counsel Erin Hawley, vice president of the ADF Center for Life and Regulatory Practice, who argued the case before the 9th Circuit. “Girls and boys each deserve a private space to shower, undress, use the restroom, and sleep, and they shouldn’t have to worry about sharing these spaces with a member of the opposite sex. Girls and boys are biologically different, and we agree with the court’s decision to protect young students’ privacy and dignity by upholding Idaho’s law that recognizes their differences and accommodates each unique student.”
A lower court upheld Idaho’s common-sense law, but the activists appealed to the 9th Circuit and won an injunction pending appeal, halting enforcement of the law. With its recent opinion, the 9th Circuit has now reversed its prior order, dissolved the injunction that was in place, and allowed Idaho’s law to take effect, protecting the privacy of boys and girls in K-12 public schools across Idaho while the case proceeds.
In its opinion in Roe v. Critchfield, the unanimous 9th Circuit saw “no argument at this stage that [Idaho law’s] mandatory segregation of [showers and overnight stays] on the basis of ‘biological sex’ is not substantially related to the State’s interests in: (1) not exposing students to the unclothed bodies of students of the opposite sex; and (2) protecting students from having to expose their own unclothed bodies to students of the opposite sex.”