After a five-year legal battle, a sharply divided federal appeals court Friday upheld a St. Johns County School Board policy that prevented a transgender male student from using boys’ bathrooms at a high school.

After a five-year legal battle, a sharply divided federal appeals court Friday upheld a St. Johns County School Board policy that prevented a transgender male student from using boys’ bathrooms at a high school.

In a closely watched case that could have national repercussions, a federal appeals court on Tuesday peppered attorneys with questions in a lawsuit over whether a Northeast Florida high school should have prevented a transgender male student from using boys’ bathrooms.

The U.S. Department of Justice will argue next month at a federal appeals court on behalf of a transgender male student who was prevented from using boys’ bathrooms at a St. Johns County high school.

Tossing out a July decision, a full federal appeals court will hear a battle about whether a transgender male student should have been allowed to use boys’ bathrooms at a St. Johns County high school.

The St. Johns County School Board is asking a federal appeals court to again consider a years-long battle about whether a transgender male student should have been allowed to use boys' bathrooms.

ST. JOHNS COUNTY, Fla. A federal appeals court said Florida transgender students need to be allowed equal access to restrooms that match their gender identity. It was a battle brought on by Drew Adams, a former St. Johns County student at Nease High School. Following the district court judges ruling, the St. Johns County school district appealed the decision, to the Atlanta-based 11th Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals. High school is hard enough without having your school separate you from your peers and mark you as inferior. He successfully sued the St. Johns County School Board in 2017.

Circuit Court of Appeals that they should overturn the ruling and let the school district restrict students to the bathroom matching their at-birth sex to protect the privacy of other students. The 11th Circuit could become the first federal appeals court to issue a binding ruling on the issue, which has arisen in several states. “This case is only about me, a boy, being allowed to use the boys’ bathroom,” Adams said after the hearing, echoing what Borelli told Pryor. “Differences between the sexes are real and it necessitates this kind of separation between the sexes,” lawyer Jeff Slanker told judges. Borelli told judges the district’s policy would “heap discrimination on transgender students.”“There is no recognized right in the law to not have to share space with transgender students,” she argued.