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Speaker 1: We're talking about the Supreme Court in this half hour.

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Speaker 1: The Supreme Court announced this morning that it would not

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Speaker 1: hear a highly publicized case about rights of transgender students

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Speaker 1: in public schools to use bathrooms that match their gender identities.

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Speaker 1: The Court canceled the argument set for March and sent

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Speaker 1: the case back to a lower court after the Trump

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Speaker 1: administration changed the federal government's policy. Our co host and

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Speaker 1: Supreme Court reporter of Greg's store is at the Court. Greg,

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Speaker 1: You've been waiting for this for some time. Explain why

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Speaker 1: the justices kicked what would have been their first encounter

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Speaker 1: with transgender rights back to the lower court June. It's

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Speaker 1: essentially because the case that they thought they were going

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Speaker 1: to hear was no longer there. Once the Trump administration

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Speaker 1: changed that policy. It undercut the rationale of the lower

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Speaker 1: court that had decided the case. The lower court had said,

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Speaker 1: because the Obama administration had said transgender students have the

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Speaker 1: right to the access of the bathroom that matches their

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Speaker 1: gender identity. Uh, the lower court said, we're going to

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Speaker 1: defer to that policy. Well, that policy is no longer there,

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Speaker 1: and so basically the Supreme Court said, we're going to

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Speaker 1: kick it back down to the lower court to decide

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Speaker 1: what federal discrimination law requires, uh, without thinking about that

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Speaker 1: that old Obama policy. So how does the court go

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Speaker 1: about doing this when it gets back to the lower court, Greg,

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Speaker 1: The key question is going to be there's a law

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Speaker 1: called Title nine which says no gender discrimination in schools. Uh.

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Speaker 1: And the key question there will be how that applies

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Speaker 1: in the case of a transgender student and who is

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Speaker 1: seeking access to in this case just bathrooms, but it

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Speaker 1: could also be uh locker rooms and and says I

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Speaker 1: want to uh use the bathroom that is consistent with

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Speaker 1: my gender identity. So they'll be directly deciding what federal

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Speaker 1: antidiscrimination law requires, without regard to what the administration thinks

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Speaker 1: it should require. Greg, why did both sides actually suggest

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Speaker 1: that the court hang onto the case? Really for tactical reasons? Um?

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Speaker 1: You know, from the standpoint of the boy who was

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Speaker 1: challenging the policy, Gavin Graham, he's represented by the c

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Speaker 1: l U. They looked at the court and they, you know,

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Speaker 1: they see Anthony Kennedy is probably the swing vote on

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Speaker 1: this issue. There's no guarantee how long he's going to

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Speaker 1: stay on the court, and they look at the court,

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Speaker 1: and they think, you know, it's as good of a

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Speaker 1: Supreme Court as we're gonna get on this issue right now.

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Speaker 1: We'd rather have them decide the issue now from the

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Speaker 1: standpoint of the school district. What they were actually trying

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Speaker 1: to do, uh was asked. They suggested that the court

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Speaker 1: seek Trump administration views, which would have delayed the case

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Speaker 1: a little bit, but just long enough so that Neil

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Speaker 1: Gorsitch might have joined the court, that Trump's nominee for

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Speaker 1: the court, and they were hoping they would have gotten

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Speaker 1: a five justice majority. But the Supreme Court said, no, actually,

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Speaker 1: we need to let the lower court decide this issue first.

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Speaker 1: So the lower court is, uh, is probably less likely

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Speaker 1: than say Justice Kennedy to uphold the transgender student's position

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Speaker 1: on us, aren't they There's certainly a good chance that

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Speaker 1: when he goes back to the lower court they will

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Speaker 1: come out the same way. You're right right now, This court,

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Speaker 1: the Fourth Circuit is somewhat liberal leaning, um, and there's certainly, uh,

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Speaker 1: you know, a real argument to say that federal anidiscrimination

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Speaker 1: law does require uh, this boy to have this access um.

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Speaker 1: And if that's the case, then you know, there's a

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Speaker 1: good chance of Supreme either way, there's a good chance

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Speaker 1: of Supreme Court will take up this issue again. Um,

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Speaker 1: and you know, Justice Kennedy, Uh, you know, is somebody

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Speaker 1: who's made gay rights a kind of a signature issue

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Speaker 1: for for him and uh, you know, this isn't exactly

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Speaker 1: the same, but it may well be that he comes

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Speaker 1: out the same way as well. One question that will

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Speaker 1: be is Justice Kennedy still on the Court by the

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Speaker 1: time the case gets back up here, Greg, do we

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Speaker 1: have any idea what the vote was like on this?

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Speaker 1: So there was a good question uh that there there's

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Speaker 1: no published assent. It was just a one sentence order. Uh,

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Speaker 1: somebody could have dissented. Uh, you know, the indication because

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Speaker 1: there was no published dissent is it was probably a

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Speaker 1: consensus decision. There might have been some justices who wanted

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Speaker 1: to keep it there, you know, wanted to to to

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Speaker 1: decide the case, but uh, in the absence of enough

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Speaker 1: votes on the Court to do that, they decided not

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Speaker 1: to make their descent public. So, you know, by all appearances,

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Speaker 1: it appears to be a consensus decision, and really it's

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Speaker 1: it's sort of in keeping with what you would expect

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Speaker 1: in the Court's normal practice, this is an issue that

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Speaker 1: was in front of them that no lord, no federal

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Speaker 1: appeals court had decided UH. And normally the Supreme Court

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Speaker 1: doesn't want to be the first court to decide an

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Speaker 1: issue like that, so normally UH, in the normal circumstances,

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Speaker 1: you would expect them to kick it back to the

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Speaker 1: lower court to decide the question first