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U.S. Supreme Court To Hear Case On Transgender Students, Bathrooms

The U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments over which bathroom transgender students must use in schools. The nation's highest court took a case out of Virginia.

This case could settle a question about half the states nationwide are suing the federal government over: which bathroom must transgender students use?

North Carolina is one of the states suing. Republican leaders want to protect the part of House bill 2 that requires transgender students to use the bathroom corresponding to their birth certificate.

The case the U.S. Supreme Court will hear is out of Virginia. In it, the U.S. Department of Education made clear a school should allow students to use the bathroom corresponding to their gender identity. The federal appeals court over the Virginias, the Carolinas and Maryland ruled this year that the school must defer to the education department's interpretation of its own regulation.

The U.S. Supreme Court put that ruling on hold in August. Now, it'll consider whether deference is appropriate and whether the department's interpretation squares with federal law.

Copyright 2016 WFAE

Michael Tomsic became a full-time reporter for WFAE in August 2012. Before that, he reported for the station as a freelancer and intern while he finished his senior year at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Heââ
Michael Tomsic
Michael Tomsic covers health care, voting rights, NASCAR, peach-shaped water towers and everything in between. He drivesWFAE'shealth care coverage through a partnership with NPR and Kaiser Health News. He became a full-time reporter forWFAEin August 2012. Before that, he reported for the station as a freelancer and intern while he finished his senior year at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He interned with Weekends on All Things Considered in Washington, D.C., where he contributed to the show’s cover stories, produced interviews withNasand BranfordMarsalis, and reported a story about a surge of college graduates joining the military. AtUNC, he was the managing editor of the student radio newscast, Carolina Connection. He got his start in public radio as an intern withWHQRin Wilmington, N.C., where he grew up.
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