Adams ''ex rel.'' Kasper ''v.'' School Board of St. Johns County, Florida is a court case from the
United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
The United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit (in case citations, 11th Cir.) is a federal court with appellate jurisdiction over the following U.S. district courts:
* Middle District of Alabama
* Northern District of Alabama
* ...
addressing whether schools can separate bathrooms on the basis of biological sex, and thus refuse to allow
transgender
A transgender (often abbreviated as trans) person is someone whose gender identity or gender expression does not correspond with their sex assigned at birth. Many transgender people experience dysphoria, which they seek to alleviate through tr ...
students to use bathrooms that match their
gender identity
Gender identity is the personal sense of one's own gender. Gender identity can correlate with a person's assigned sex or can differ from it. In most individuals, the various biological determinants of sex are congruent, and consistent with the i ...
. The case was filed by Erica Adams Kasper on behalf of Drew Adams, a minor at the time, against the school board of
St. Johns County, Florida
St. Johns County is a county in the First Coast, northeastern part of the U.S. state of Florida. As of the 2020 United States Census, its population was 273,425. The county seat and largest incorporated city is St. Augustine, Florida, St. August ...
, in the
. The lawsuit was filed after Adams was denied access to the boys' bathrooms at
Nease High School.
Kasper claimed that Adams's rights were being violated on account of discriminated on the basis of sex, which is prohibited by
Title IX
Title IX is the most commonly used name for the federal civil rights law in the United States that was enacted as part (Title IX) of the Education Amendments of 1972. It prohibits sex-based discrimination in any school or any other educat ...
of the
Education Amendments of 1972
The Education Amendments of 1972, also sometimes known as the Higher Education Amendments of 1972 (Public Law No. 92‑318, 86 Stat. 235), were U.S. legislation enacted on June 23, 1972. It is best known for its Title IX, which prohibited disc ...
, and a violation of the
equal protection of the laws under the
Fourteenth Amendment.
[ Adams ex rel. Kasper v. School Board of St. Johns County, Florida, 968 F.3d 1286 (11th Cir. 2020).]
Adams has been using the boys' bathrooms for the six weeks of freshman year when, following an anonymous complaint from two female students, Adams was informed that only the use of the gender-neutral bathrooms or the girls' bathrooms would be acceptable.
The plaintiff argued that Title IX protections encompass gender identity, and thus policies or rules governing schools may not turn on one's sex
as assigned at birth.
Kasper was represented by the LGBTQ rights law organization
Lambda Legal
Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, better known as Lambda Legal, is an American civil rights organization that focuses on lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) communities as well as people living with HIV/ AIDS ( PWAs) through i ...
, and was supported in
''amicus'' briefs by over fifty organizations, including the
National Women's Law Center
The National Women's Law Center (NWLC) is a United States non-profit organization founded by Marcia Greenberger in 1972 and based in Washington, D.C. The Center advocates for women's rights and LGBTQ rights through litigation and policy initiati ...
and the
Anti-Defamation League
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL), formerly known as the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith, is an international Jewish non-governmental organization based in the United States specializing in civil rights law. It was founded in late Septe ...
. ADL's brief made the argument that the school board's "protective concerns" were invalid because they were based on discriminatory stereotypes and that there was no evidence that use of the restroom corresponding to gender identity in the county’s schools caused any injury or harm to students.
[ A critic of the ruling argued that ]sex
Sex is the trait that determines whether a sexually reproducing animal or plant produces male or female gametes. Male plants and animals produce smaller mobile gametes (spermatozoa, sperm, pollen), while females produce larger ones (ova, oft ...
and gender identity
Gender identity is the personal sense of one's own gender. Gender identity can correlate with a person's assigned sex or can differ from it. In most individuals, the various biological determinants of sex are congruent, and consistent with the i ...
should be differentiated and that Adams's right therefore would not fall under Title IX protections.[ St. Johns County School Board was represented by Sniffen & Spellman, P.A., a Florida law firm that specializes in civil rights and education law issues.
]
Ruling by the District Court
A bench trial was held December 11–13, 2017 and closing arguments were heard on February 16, 2018, before U.S. District Court Judge Timothy J. Corrigan
Timothy J. Corrigan (born February 21, 1956) is the Chief United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida.
Personal life and education
Corrigan was born in 1956 in Jacksonville, Florida. He r ...
. On July 26, 2018, Judge Corrigan issued an opinion finding for Kasper, holding that Adams's rights had been violated and that the school policy violated the Equal Protection clause
The Equal Protection Clause is part of the first section of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. The clause, which took effect in 1868, provides "''nor shall any State ... deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal ...
of the Fourteenth Amendment and Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972.
Ruling by a three-judge panel of the Eleventh Circuit
The school board appealed the ruling to a three-judge panel of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals
The United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit (in case citations, 11th Cir.) is a federal court with appellate jurisdiction over the following U.S. district courts:
* Middle District of Alabama
* Northern District of Alabama
* ...
. On August 7, 2020, the opinion of Judge Beverly B. Martin, joined by Judge Jill A. Pryor
Jill Anne Pryor (born March 24, 1963) is a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. Pryor was born in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
Education
Pryor received her Bachelor of Arts degree in 1985 from ...
, again decided in favor of Adams. Judge Martin ruled that a public school may not "harm transgender students by establishing arbitrary, separate rules for their restroom use."[ Chief Judge ]William H. Pryor Jr.
William Holcombe Pryor Jr. (born April 26, 1962) is an American lawyer serving as the chief judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. He is a former commissioner of the United States Sentencing Commission. Previously, ...
dissented, arguing that the discrimination was on the basis of sex, not on transgender status, which is valid under Title IX when creating sex-segregated bathrooms. In response to a motion for reconsideration, the panel issued a new opinion on July 14, 2021, limited to the equal protection claim under the Fourteenth Amendment, without dealing with the Title IX claim. On August 23, 2021, the 11th Circuit voted to vacate the panel opinion and rehear the case ''en banc
In law, an en banc session (; French for "in bench"; also known as ''in banc'', ''in banco'' or ''in bank'') is a session in which a case is heard before all the judges of a court (before the entire bench) rather than by one judge or a smaller ...
''.[
]
''En banc'' ruling by the Eleventh Circut
On December 30, 2022, the ''en banc'' 11th Circuit issued an opinion overruling the district court's opinion in a 7–4 decision. Judge Logoa wrote both the majority opinion and also a special concurring opinion. Dissents were written by Judges Wilson, Jordan, Rosenbaum, and Pryor.
In the majority opinion Judge Lagoa wrote "Title IX allows schools to provide separate bathrooms on the basis of biological sex."[ Adams ex rel. Kasper v. School Board of St. Johns County, Florida, No. 18-13592 (11th Cir. Dec. 30, 2022).]
Judge Wilson wrote that the bathroom policy was discriminatory because " derlying this sex-assigned-at-matriculation bathroom policy, however, is the presumption that biological sex is accurately determinable at birth and that it is a static or permanent biological determination."[
Judge Jill Pryor wrote that "gender identity is an immutable, biological component of a person's sex" and that "birth-assigned sex and chromosomal structure take a back seat in determining a person's sex when that person's gender identity diverges from those two components."][ Pryor also wrote that] e term "biological sex," as used by the School District in its bathroom policy, thus does not include many of the biological components that together make up an individual's sex as understood by medical science, including gender identity. Nor does the term "biological sex," when used to mean only sex assigned at birth, account for the reality that the biological components of sex in an individual might diverge. And the term fails to account for the primacy of two biological components in particular, gender identity and neurological sex, when such a divergence occurs. Put simply, the term "biological sex" as used by the School District is at odds with medical science.
Judge Jordan wrote that the policy "can only be justified by administrative convenience. And when intermediate scrutiny applies, administrative convenience is an insufficient justification for a gender-based classification."
See also
* '' Doe v. Clenchy''
* ''G.G. v. Gloucester County School Board
''G.G. v. Gloucester County School Board'' is a case dealing with transgender rights. The case involves a transgender boy attending a Virginia high school, who sued the local school board after he was forced to use girls' restrooms based on his a ...
''
* Bathroom bills
A bathroom bill is the common name for legislation or a statute that denies access to public toilets by gender or transgender identity. Bathroom bills affect access to sex-segregated public facilities for an individual based on a determination o ...
* Coy Mathis bathroom case
* ''Price Waterhouse v. Hopkins
''Price Waterhouse v. Hopkins'', 490 U.S. 228 (1989), was a landmark decision of the US Supreme Court on the issues of prescriptive sex discrimination and employer liability for sex discrimination. The employee, Ann Hopkins, sued her former employ ...
''
References
External links
{{src, Adams ex rel. Kasper v. School Board of St. Johns County, Florida
Lambda Legal: Adams v. School Board of St Johns County
Discrimination against transgender people
United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit cases
United States gender discrimination case law
United States transgender rights case law