Supreme Court sends transgender bathroom case back to lower court News
Supreme Court sends transgender bathroom case back to lower court

[JURIST] The US Supreme Court [official website] on Monday vacated [order, PDF] a lower court ruling in a case concerning transgender restroom policies following a move by the Trump administration to rescind guidelines that school districts should allow students to use the bathroom of their choice. The court had previously set arguments in the case for March 28 but has now asked the lower court to reconsider their ruling given the administration’s revocation of guidelines [JURIST report] from the US Departments of Justice (DOJ) and 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]. The case, Gloucester County School Board v. G.G. [SCOTUSblog materials], now returns to the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit for consideration in light of the new guidance.

The Fourth Circuit had previously ruled in favor of the student [JURIST report], Gavin Grimm, last April, giving deference to the 2015 DOE memo. The Supreme Court blocked that ruling in August and then agreed in October to take up the case [JURIST reports].

THIS DAY @ LAW

Indian National Congress founded

The Indian National Congress (INC) was founded on December 28, 1885 in Bombay (now Mumbai), India. In subsequent decades, the so-called Congress Party would advocate for Indian independence from the UK, which was eventually achieved in 1947. The first Prime Minister of independent India, Jawaharlal Nehru, was elected as a member of the INC. Learn more about the history and founding of the Indian National Congress.

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On December 28, 1945, Congress officially recognized the Pledge of Allegiance and encouraged its recitation in schools. The Pledge was supposedly written in 1892 by Francis Bellamy, a Baptist minister, to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Columbus Day. The words “under God” were added by Congress in 1954. The revised version of the Pledge was the subject of litigation before the United States Supreme Court originally brought by Michael Newdow, a parent who unsuccessfully objected to his daughter's school district policy requiring daily recitation of the Pledge. The court ruled that Newdow had no standing.

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