COLUMBIA — A lawsuit over which bathrooms transgender students can use came to an end after the student suing moved to a different state, attorneys on the case said.

The transgender high school sophomore, who is unnamed in court documents, filed the lawsuit in federal court in November 2024, when the Berkeley County student was in eighth grade. It challenged a budget clause that barred K-12 public schools from letting transgender students use multi-stalled bathrooms that don't align with their sex at birth.

Schools that gave permission risked losing a quarter of their state funding.

Transgender SC student drops appeal in bathroom lawsuit after switching to virtual school

The student withdrew from in-person classes last year, with attorneys also citing bullying he faced for being transgender. Berkeley County school officials disputed that description and said the district "is committed to preventing and correcting discrimination and harassment of any form."

Outside of school, the student "continued to face transphobic harassment," according to a recent statement from Public Justice, which represented the student in the case. He and his family moved to another state, which attorneys didn't name, so the student "can attend school in a safe, inclusive learning environment," the statement reads.

"Like all children, John has a right to attend school in a safe environment where he is respected and valued," the statement read. "South Carolina, however, has actively worked to foment a hostile environment within its schools and the state as a whole."

The budget clause, which is technically a one-year law, was superseded earlier this year by a permanent law that extended the rules to state-funded universities.

Public Justice still believes the law is unconstitutional, according to the statement.

Attorneys have repeatedly pointed to a case in Virginia where the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals — the same circuit that would hear South Carolina's case — ruled in 2021 that a transgender student could use the bathroom and locker room of his choice, overturning a state law. The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the case, allowing that decision to stand.

Attorneys for the state disagreed, saying in court documents the law fell in line with a growing consensus among judges about what fell under the constitutional right to privacy. Schools could make different arrangements for transgender students to use the bathroom, preventing discrimination, attorneys argued in court filings.

The case has spent much of the past two years on hold as the nation's high court considered a different case about whether Idaho and West Virginia could bar transgender athletes from playing on the sports team of their choice.

On June 30, justices ruled 6-3 those laws could stand, which also upheld South Carolina's similar "Save Women Sports Act," signed in 2022.

U.S. District Judge Richard Gergel, who was presiding over the case involving the Berkeley County student, told both sides to argue why that ruling on sports did or didn't apply to the bathroom law.

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But last month, before that deadline, the student dropped the case.

The attorney general's office didn't respond Monday to a request for comment about the case's end. Attorney General Alan Wilson previously called the dismissal of an appeal in the case "a major win for common sense and for South Carolina families."

In September 2025, part of the case reached the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled Berkeley County School District had to let the student use the bathroom of his choice as the lawsuit continued. The decision applied only to the student suing and didn't reflect the court's opinions on the case itself, only the question of whether the law should apply as the case played out, justices wrote at the time.

This is the second time a challenge to South Carolina's laws about transgender rights have been dismissed without a ruling.

The American Civil Liberties Union, along with a group of transgender adults and children, dropped a lawsuit last year challenging a state law that barred all gender transition treatments for youth and prohibited taxpayer dollars from going toward procedures for adults.

That decision came after the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a similar law in Tennessee banning gender transition treatments for transgender youth. That decision also sent two cases about whether health insurance coverage should include the treatments for transgender adults to the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals for consideration.