Transgender activists, advocacy groups and allies gather at the Ohio Statehouse to protest Ohio's new transgender bathroom bill on Feb. 25, 2025.

WASHINGTON – South Carolina wants the Supreme Court to let it prevent a transgender boy from using boy’s restrooms in his high school.

In an emergency request filed Aug. 28, the state and school district asked the court to pause a court order that the student be allowed to use the restroom that matches his gender identity while he challenges the state’s policy.

The Berkeley County School District is now forced to chose between obeying the court order and not running afoul of the Trump administration, which has gone after schools that allow transgender students to choose their bathroom and locker room, lawyers told the Supreme Court.

“It’s now stuck between an impossible rock and hard place,” they wrote.

The state legislature, in 2024, included in the state budget a requirement that public school students use the bathroom or locker room that corresponds with their birth sex rather than their gender identity.

A transgender teen, identified as John Doe, sued.

“All students deserve to feel safe and supported in school, including my son,” his father said at the time.

On Aug. 12, the Richmond-based 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the student can use the boys’ restrooms while his suit is being litigated.

And in 2020, the appeals court ruled that bathroom restrictions at a Virginia school amounted to discrimination.

The Supreme Court declined to review that decision.

Since then, however, the court has allowed states to ban gender-affirming care for minors and has agreed to review Idaho’s and West Virginia’s bans on transgender athletes joining sports teams.

Although the transgender care case did not address the bathroom issue, lawyers for the state said the court’s reasoning will eventually lead to a decision backing South Carolina’s bathroom rules.

“This case implicates a question fraught with emotions and differing perspectives,” lawyers for South Carolina wrote in their request. “That is all the more reason to defer to state lawmakers” until the legal issues have been resolved.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: South Carolina asks Supreme Court to keep bathroom ban in place for transgender student

Reporting by Maureen Groppe, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

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