Attorney General Alan Wilson asks U.S. Supreme Court to protect South Carolina’s Bathroom Privacy Law

(COLUMBIA, S.C.) – South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson, along with SC Superintendent of Education Ellen Weaver, announced that the state has formally asked the United States Supreme Court to step in and block a Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals injunction that forces a South Carolina school to abandon its longstanding bathroom privacy protections.

The emergency application, filed late Thursday, asks the Court to stay the Fourth Circuit’s order requiring a Berkeley County school to allow a biological female student identifying as male to use boys’ restrooms. The injunction, issued just one day before the school year began, does not overturn South Carolina’s enacted budget proviso requiring public school bathrooms to be separated by biological sex, but gives an exception to the one student. 

“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.”

“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,” said Superintendent Ellen Weaver.  

Wilson emphasized that the state’s position aligns with a growing national legal consensus. The Eleventh and Ninth Circuits, as well as federal courts in the Sixth and Tenth Circuits, have all upheld laws or policies separating bathrooms and locker rooms by biological sex. The Fourth Circuit remains an outlier, relying on a 2020 ruling that has since been undermined by recent Supreme Court decisions.

Pending the Supreme Court’s decision, Attorney General Wilson will continue fighting at the Fourth Circuit to uphold 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.”

You can read the brief here.