A Virginia school board plans to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to decide whether the Obama administration went too far in directing the nation’s schools to let transgender students use bathrooms of their choice, arguing that the guidance issued to schools last month is an overreach of power and violates student privacy.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit on Tuesday granted the Gloucester County School Board’s request to put the court’s earlier ruling in the case on hold while it petitions the Supreme Court.

Transgender student Gavin Grimm's suit against a Virginia school board has been put on hold while a petition is filed for the U.S. Surpene Court. The Associated Press Steve Helber

The 4th Circuit ruled in April that transgender student Gavin Grimm could continue his lawsuit against the county, in which he has argued that a policy banning him from the boys’ bathroom violates his civil rights.

A three-judge panel of the court this spring sent Grimm’s case back to a lower court and

also deferred to the Obama administration’s position that such bathroom restrictions – that bar students from using bathrooms that coincide with their gender identity – are a violation of Title IX, which prohibits sex discrimination in public schools.

When the 4th Circuit ruled in April, it was the highest court to consider whether such bathroom restrictions amount to sex discrimination, and the decision tacitly invited the Obama administration to reiterate its guidance on the matter.

In May, the Obama administration directed schools across the nation to provide transgender students with access to suitable facilities – including bathrooms and locker rooms – that match their chosen gender identity.

That move plunged the administration further into a national debate about transgender rights, something that has become a flash point nationally as local and state governments have moved to restrict bathroom by requiring people to use facilities that match the sex on their birth certificate.

The federal guidance on the issue met immediate pushback, with 11 states suing the Obama administration and alleging government overreach that could cause “seismic changes in the operations of the nation’s school districts.”

Tuesday, the Gloucester County school board filed a petition asking the federal appeals court to put the judgment in Grimm’s case on hold while its attorneys prepare a writ of certiorari, asking the U.S. Supreme Court to hear the case.

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