South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson and Superintendent of Education Ellen Weaver have requested the United States Supreme Court to halt a Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals injunction affecting the state’s bathroom privacy law in public schools.
The emergency application, filed Thursday, seeks to stay an order that requires a Berkeley County school to allow a biological female student who identifies as male to use boys’ restrooms. The injunction was issued one day before the new school year began. While it does not overturn South Carolina’s budget proviso mandating public school bathrooms be separated by biological sex, it grants an exception for the student involved.
“South Carolina passed this law to protect the privacy and safety of every child in our schools,” said Attorney General Wilson. “But activist judges on the Fourth Circuit threw out common sense and the will of the people to give one student a special exception. What about the rights and safety of all students? Where does it stop? This is judicial activism at its worst, and we’re fighting back. South Carolina will not stand by while ideology is put ahead of children’s safety. I am taking this fight all the way to the Supreme Court.”
Superintendent Weaver stated, “South Carolina’s law is grounded in biological reality and protects the privacy, safety, and dignity of every child. No activist court should force schools to abandon common sense or put ideology ahead of student well-being. I’m proud to take this fight to the steps of the Supreme Court — to defend our law, protect our children, and preserve sanity in our schools.”
Wilson noted that courts in other jurisdictions—including those in the Eleventh and Ninth Circuits as well as federal courts in the Sixth and Tenth Circuits—have upheld similar laws or policies separating bathrooms by biological sex. He argued that only the Fourth Circuit has taken a different approach, relying on a 2020 ruling that he says has been weakened by recent Supreme Court decisions.
While awaiting action from the Supreme Court, Wilson said his office would continue efforts at the Fourth Circuit level to support South Carolina’s bathroom law.
“This case is about more than one school district,” Wilson added. “It is about whether unelected judges will override the will of parents and legislators, or whether South Carolina and other states will retain the authority to safeguard student privacy in the most sensitive spaces.”
