A group rallied outside the White House last month in support of transgender rights. (Photo by Ted Eytan)

A landmark case involving transgender rights won’t have its day at the Supreme Court, at least not this month.

Oral arguments were scheduled for the end of March in the case of a Virginia high school student who sued the county school board after it issued a policy barring the transgender teen from using the boy’s restroom. But in the wake of new guidance from the Trump administration, the Court vacated a lower court’s ruling in favor of the student and sent it back for reconsideration.

As has happened in similar cases elsewhere in Virginia and around the country, Gavin Grimm’s request to use the male bathrooms at Gloucester High School polarized his community and spurred a bitter debate. The school board eventually voted to require that students use bathrooms that correspond to their “biological gender.” Grimm sued, and was thrust into the center of a national debate.

The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of Grimm, relying on the Obama administration’s interpretation of federal law. The Departments of Justice and Education issued guidance last year that directed public schools to allow transgender students to use the bathrooms that align with their gender identity.

But those same departments withdrew those guidelines in the first few weeks of the Trump administration.

Because the Fourth Circuit’s ruling relied on the Obama-era guidance, the Supreme Court’s order today now nullifies the ruling in favor of Grimm and sends it back to the lower court. SCOTUSblog explains:

Even when both sides agree that a case should go forward, however, the justices often prefer not to weigh in on a question that a lower court has not fully vetted. And so today, in a one-sentence order, the court passed the case back to the 4th Circuit for further proceedings, which presumably will include a closer look at the question of whether the school board’s policy violates Title IX.

“This is a detour, not the end of the road, and we’ll continue to fight for Gavin and other transgender people to ensure that they are treated with the dignity and respect they deserve,” said Joshua Block, lead counsel in the case and a senior staff attorney at the ACLU. “While we’re disappointed that the Supreme Court will not be hearing Gavin’s case this term, the overwhelming level of support shown for Gavin and trans students by people across the country throughout this process shows that the American people have already moved in the right direction.”