A federal judge today (Tuesday, June 16) issued a preliminary injunction blocking enforcement of an Idaho law that left transgender people people facing the possibility of up to five years in prison for using public restrooms consistent with their gender identity.
The law, HB 752, was set to go into effect on July 1, according to a press release from Lambda Legal, one of the organizations that had filed suit challenging the law on behalf of six transgender Idaho residents. Today’s order “limits enforcement of the law to protect access to some restrooms while the case challenging it proceeds,” the press release explained.
The preliminary injunction prevents the Idaho attorney general and all 44 county prosecutors from enforcing HB 752 whenever the covered restroom designated for use by sex is a single-user facility or when a single-user restroom is not available because no singer-user restroom exists on the same floor as the multi-user facilities or all single-user restrooms on the same floor are occupied or not in service.
Kell Olson, counsel with Lambda Legal, said, “Our Constitution provides critical protections against laws that are unclear and that call on officers to make arbitrary judgments about how to enforce them, especially when the law threatens imprisonment. The court recognized that threat in providing relief to plaintiffs today.
“This ruling will allow transgender people throughout Idaho to find and use a public restroom, without the fear of arrest looming over them, while we continue the longer fight to permanently defeat this discriminatory law in court,” Olson added.
Paul Carlos Southwick, legal director of ACLU of Idaho, added, “This ruling means trans folks in Idaho can continue participating in public life without the fear of being arrested for using the bathroom. Trans Idahoans have been understandably anxious about this disruption this unconstitutional law would cause in their daily lives. This ruling will relieve anxiety for our trans friends and neighbors.”
And Barbara Schwabauer, senior staff attorney for the ACLU’s LGBTQ & HIV Project, said the injunction “provides significant protections for transgender people in Idaho from the efforts of state politicians to force them out of public life altogether.”
Schwabauer continued, “No one should be forced to choose between the threat of arrest for being themselves in public or the threat of harassment and violence for acting the way the state wants them to be. The preliminary injunction is a vital first step as we continue to challenge this gross violation of privacy and fundamental equality until the law is blocked for good.”
Idaho Gov. Brad Little signed HB 752 — which restricted public bathroom use by transgender people, with the first offense a misdemeanor with up to one year in jail and a second offense a felony with up to five years in prison — earlier this year. The law applies to all government-owned buildings and private businesses open to the public, including rest stops, libraries, gas stations, malls, restaurants, entertainment venues, hospitals and others.
The six plaintiffs in the case filed their suit in April. They are represented by Lambda Legal, ACLU, ACLU of Idaho the law firm Munger, Tolles and Olson and the Alturas Law Group in the U.S. District Court for the District of Idaho.
— Tammye Nash