Federal judge allows Idaho law banning males from girls' bathrooms to take effect

An Idaho law requiring public schools to limit restroom access to actual members of the designated sex can be enforced in a matter of days, thanks to U.S. District Judge David Nye lifting a temporary restraining order that he imposed in August.

SB 1100, signed in March by Republican Gov. Brad Little, requires “[e]very public school restroom or changing facility accessible by multiple persons at the same time [to] be designated for use by male persons only or female persons only and used only by members of that sex.” Schools may make “reasonable accommodations” for individuals suffering from gender dysphoria, as long as they do not allow members of one sex in the presence of the other.

It also empowers students to sue a school that gave someone “permission to use facilities of the opposite sex” or “failed to take reasonable steps to prohibit that person from using facilities of the opposite sex.”  

The law was originally slated to take effect in July, but the LGBT law group Lambda Legal filed a lawsuit alleging it was discriminatory, prompting Nye to temporarily halt its enforcement the following month.