South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson and Superintendent of Education Ellen Weaver have requested that the U.S. Supreme Court intervene in a legal dispute over the state’s school bathroom privacy law. The move comes after the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals issued an injunction requiring a Berkeley County school to permit a biological female student who identifies as male to use boys’ restrooms.
The emergency application, filed late Thursday, seeks to halt the Fourth Circuit’s order. The injunction does not overturn South Carolina’s budget proviso mandating that public school bathrooms be separated by biological sex but provides an exception for one student at the center of the case.
“South Carolina passed this law to protect the privacy and safety of every child in our schools,” said Attorney General Wilson. “But activist judges on the Fourth Circuit threw out common sense and the will of the people to give one student a special exception. What about the rights and safety of all students? Where does it stop? This is judicial activism at its worst, and we’re fighting back. South Carolina will not stand by while ideology is put ahead of children’s safety. I am taking this fight all the way to the Supreme Court.”
Superintendent Weaver also voiced her support for bringing the issue before the nation’s highest court: “South Carolina’s law is grounded in biological reality and protects the privacy, safety, and dignity of every child. No activist court should force schools to abandon common sense or put ideology ahead of student well-being. I’m proud to take this fight to the steps of the Supreme Court — to defend our law, protect our children, and preserve sanity in our schools.”
Wilson noted that other federal courts—including those in the Eleventh, Ninth, Sixth, and Tenth Circuits—have upheld similar laws or policies separating bathrooms by biological sex. He argued that recent decisions from these courts indicate growing national legal support for such measures.
Pending action from the Supreme Court, Wilson stated he will continue efforts at the Fourth Circuit level: “This case is about more than one school district,” Wilson added. “It is about whether unelected judges will override the will of parents and legislators, or whether South Carolina and other states will retain the authority to safeguard student privacy in the most sensitive spaces.”
