The Trump administration on Wednesday revoked [letter, PDF] the Obama-era guidelines [press release] regarding transgender students. The previous guidelines were a joint effort by the US Department of Justice (DOJ) and Department of Education (DOE) [official websites] that required federally funded schools to treat gender identity as a student’s sex for purposes of Title IX [DOE materials]. A federal district court had granted an injunction against the guidelines, and the DOJ had filed but later withdrew an appeal [JURIST report]. Support came in from the parties seeking the injunction, and criticism has also followed the decision [Reuters report], with about 200 people protesting outside of the White House.

The action was taken as the US Supreme Court [official website] is set to hear arguments [JURIST report] in March in Gloucester County School Board v. G.G. [SCOTUSblog materials]. The case involves a Virginia school board’s decision requiring students to use the restroom according to their gender at birth. In a related matter, North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper recently proposed a compromise [JURIST report] to repeal HB2, also known as the “bathroom bill,” which contains similar requirements for public restrooms.