LGBT activists just dropped a key lawsuit over Idaho’s girls’ bathroom protections, clearing the way for one of the nation’s toughest sex-based privacy laws to stand – even as a new federal fight over a broader restroom law heats up.
Story Snapshot
- Student activists ended their federal challenge to Idaho’s K-12 bathroom protections after a plaintiff’s death and another student’s departure.
- Idaho’s law keeping biological males out of girls’ bathrooms and locker rooms in public schools now remains fully in effect statewide.
- A federal appeals court has already backed Idaho’s privacy rationale, giving conservatives critical legal footing.
- Activist groups have shifted focus to a new lawsuit attacking Idaho’s 2026 criminal bathroom law that also covers private businesses.
Student Lawsuit Ends, School Bathroom Protections Stand
Idaho’s first major bathroom battle centered on a 2023 law requiring K-12 public schools to keep separate multi-user restrooms, locker rooms, showers, and overnight accommodations based on sex assigned at birth, while allowing single-user facilities as an alternative.[3] The Sexuality and Gender Alliance, a student group at Boise High School, sued arguing the law violated equal protection and federal sex discrimination rules. That case has now been dropped after one transgender student plaintiff died by suicide and another stopped attending the school.[3]
After the dismissal, Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador announced that the K-12 law “is fully in effect” and would remain so, emphasizing the state had defended “Idaho’s right to protect students’ privacy in bathrooms and locker rooms” from the trial court up through the federal appeals court.[3] His statement underscored that despite emotional rhetoric from activists, the legal system has not found a constitutional right for biological males to access girls’ facilities in Idaho’s public schools.
Federal Appeals Court Backs Bodily Privacy Over Gender Ideology
The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit had already dealt a serious blow to the activists’ case months before the dismissal. In March 2025, a three-judge panel upheld a lower-court decision refusing to extend a block on Idaho’s school bathroom law.[3] Applying what it called “intermediate scrutiny,” the court held that Idaho identified an important governmental objective—protecting bodily privacy—and used permissible means to achieve that goal.[3] That ruling gives Idaho and other states a concrete precedent that sex-separated spaces can be lawful.
The law itself is straightforward: it bars members of one sex from entering multi-user facilities designated for the opposite sex, while carving out exceptions for cleaning, medical aid, athletic staff, and similar limited situations.[3] Single-user restrooms and changing rooms remain open to anyone, offering practical alternatives without forcing girls to undress next to biological males. Activists framed this as discrimination, but the federal appeals court accepted Idaho’s position that privacy and safety for minors justify sex-based boundaries in intimate spaces.[3]
New Federal Lawsuit Targets Idaho’s Criminal Bathroom Law
Even as the school-focused lawsuit faded, national advocacy groups pivoted to a broader target: Idaho’s 2026 law known as H.B. 752. That statute makes it a crime for transgender-identifying individuals to enter sex-designated public restrooms that do not align with their biological sex in government buildings and private businesses open to the public, including places like libraries, rest stops, airports, malls, gas stations, restaurants, and hospitals.[2][4] Six transgender Idaho residents have filed a new federal lawsuit, Jackson-Edney v. Labrador, attacking this law.
Backed by the American Civil Liberties Union, the American Civil Liberties Union of Idaho, Lambda Legal, and private law firms, the plaintiffs claim H.B. 752 violates constitutional rights to due process, equal protection, and privacy.[1][2][4] They argue the law’s criminal penalties—up to one year in prison for a first offense and up to five years for a second—place an unusually heavy burden on transgender people compared with bathroom rules in other states.[1][2][4] Advocacy groups describe the measure as among the most sweeping in the country because it extends beyond schools and government offices to private businesses serving the public.[2][4]
Privacy, Safety, and the Coming Constitutional Clash
Idaho’s current legal landscape reflects a broader national shift: states are moving from narrow school-based rules toward comprehensive sex-based standards for public accommodations.[4] Activists want federal courts to treat gender identity as overriding biological sex in restrooms, while Idaho lawmakers argue that common-sense privacy, safety, and parental expectations demand clear boundaries. The earlier school case, and the Ninth Circuit’s acceptance of Idaho’s privacy rationale, now loom large over this new challenge to H.B. 752.[3]
A lawsuit challenging Idaho’s transgender bathroom ban in K-12 public schools could end soon, after a group at Boise High School suing over the law dropped the case.https://t.co/esP8tsWiwT#EastIdahoNews #LGBTQrights #Idaho pic.twitter.com/zVSOYhLxrE
— East Idaho News (@EastIDNews) May 23, 2026
For conservatives, the stakes go well beyond bathroom signs. If activists succeed in striking down Idaho’s law, it will embolden efforts to erase sex-based protections in schools, businesses, and public buildings nationwide, and further marginalize parents who demand safety and dignity for their daughters. If Idaho prevails, the state will solidify a key precedent that lawmakers can defend women’s privacy and children’s innocence against gender ideology without surrendering to pressure from national activist organizations and their lawyers.[1][2][3][4]
Sources:
[1] Web – Transgender Idahoans Challenge Criminal Restroom Ban in New …
[2] Web – Transgender Idahoans Challenge Criminal Restroom Ban in New …
[3] Web – High school group challenging Idaho’s trans bathroom ban drops …
[4] Web – LGBTQ Justice – ACLU of Idaho
