Challenge over Idaho’s school bathroom law dropped; law ‘fully in effect’
Three years ago, opponents filed a lawsuit challenging an Idaho law that bars transgender students from using school bathrooms that correspond with their gender identity.
Now, that challenge is on the verge of dismissal.
On Wednesday, the parties involved filed a stipulation for voluntary dismissal in the case. They noted that in November, they filed proposed findings of fact that included that two current members of Boise High School’s Sexuality and Gender Alliance disclosed they were transgender and would be impacted by the law. In January, one of those students, identified as Jane Doe, died by suicide, according to court filings. The other student is no longer at Boise High School.
In a news release Thursday, Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador celebrated the outcome.
“From the district court to the Ninth Circuit, we defended Idaho’s right to protect students’ privacy in bathrooms and locker rooms,” Labrador said in the news release. “Idaho families can be confident that this law is fully in effect and will remain so.”
In response to a question about the student’s death, Labrador shared his thoughts for the child’s family.
“This is a personal tragedy and our hearts go out to the family,” he said in an email to the Statesman. “We don’t comment on the private circumstances of individuals involved in litigation.”
Suit alleged law would harm trans students
The Idaho Legislature in 2023 passed Senate Bill 1100, requiring public schools to have separate bathrooms, locker rooms and overnight accommodations for students based on their sex at birth. It also mandated that schools provide accommodations for students who are “unwilling or unable” to use multi-occupancy restrooms or changing facilities that align with their sex at birth.
Shortly after, opponents sued and asked the court for a preliminary injunction. They argued the school bathroom ban violated the Constitution and would cause irreparable harm to transgender students across the state.
The law was temporarily blocked, but in October 2023, a federal judge allowed it to go into effect, according to previous Statesman reporting.
Litigation and appeals have been ongoing since. In August 2025, the district court said the state “had a legitimate interest in protecting privacy” and that the plaintiffs were “unlikely to succeed on its constitutional claims.” It also argued if the law did cause harm, it was “not irreparable because the law requires an alternative accommodation which SAGA members may use.”
The stipulation for dismissal said plaintiffs and defendants would bear their own costs, and that the case should be dismissed without prejudice, meaning it could be brought again.
Other lawsuits challenge bathroom laws
Idaho has passed several laws in recent years that put restrictions on transgender people. This session, the Legislature overwhelmingly approved what critics have called the most extreme bathroom ban in the nation.
That law makes it a misdemeanor for a person to “knowingly and willfully” use a restroom or changing room that doesn’t align with their sex assigned at birth in any government building or building of public accommodation. Under the sweeping law, a second offense would come with a felony and up to five years in prison.
Last month, six transgender people sued, alleging the state’s new bathroom ban violates the constitutional rights of transgender people and puts their safety and well-being at risk.
The lawsuit said the law, which takes effect July 1, forces transgender people to make an “impossible choice,” between using a bathroom that doesn’t align with their gender identity and risking “severe physical and psychological harms,” or breaking the law and facing prison time.
The suit calls the law one of the “most punitive and broadest-sweeping laws in the country.”
