Supreme Court won't let South Carolina enforce transgender bathroom ban

The Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected South Carolina’s request to enforce a ban on transgender students using restrooms that match their gender identity at school.

The emergency order keeps intact a lower court’s ruling letting a transgender teenager, identified in court papers as John Doe, use his school’s boys’ bathroom as his challenge to the state’s policy proceeds.

It emphasized that the denial of South Carolina's emergency application is “not a ruling on the merits of the legal issues presented in the litigation.”

“Rather, it is based on the standards applicable for obtaining emergency relief from this Court,” the unsigned order read.

Justices Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch would have granted the application, the order says.

South Carolina’s bathroom-use restri