California Attorney General Rob Bonta has thrown his office's weight behind two transgender college students suing the state of Idaho over a law that bars them from using campus restrooms and other facilities matching their gender identity. Bonta and a coalition of 19 other attorneys general filed an amicus brief this week urging a federal judge to block enforcement of the law while the case moves forward.
The brief, filed August 5 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Idaho, asks the court to grant a preliminary injunction against Idaho House Bill 264, according to the CBS Sacramento report on the filing. The law, signed by Idaho Governor Brad Little in April 2025, requires public colleges and universities in the state to exclude transgender students and workers from multi-user facilities, defining sex strictly by chromosomes and reproductive anatomy, per Lambda Legal. Idaho House Bill 264 applies specifically to universities and community colleges, and it prohibits transgender people from using restrooms and other sex-separated facilities consistent with their gender identity in those public educational settings.
Two transgender college students filed the underlying federal lawsuit in July 2025, represented by Lambda Legal along with the law firms Munger, Tolles & Olson LLP and Alturas Law Group. The students argue the law violates their rights under the Fourteenth Amendment and federal civil rights protections, and they are seeking a preliminary injunction to stop Idaho from enforcing HB 264 while their case proceeds.
Bonta's Coalition Argues the Law Is Unconstitutional
Bonta and the coalition argued in their brief that Idaho's law violates the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution and stigmatizes transgender students by denying them access to common school facilities based on gender identity. “Idaho's law is an unconstitutional threat to the safety and privacy of transgender and gender-conforming students,” Bonta said, per CBS Sacramento's reporting.
The California-led coalition includes the attorneys general of Washington, New York, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, and the District of Columbia. The 19-state brief contends that California's own inclusive facility policies provide important benefits without compromising other students' privacy or safety.
California has required all public schools to allow students to use single-sex facilities corresponding with their gender identity since 2014, when Assembly Bill 1266 — the School Success and Opportunity Act — took effect after Governor Jerry Brown signed it in August 2013, making California the first state in the nation with such a guarantee, according to the ACLU of Southern California. Governor Gavin Newsom built on that framework in July 2024 by signing Assembly Bill 1955, known as the SAFETY Act, making California the first state to prohibit school districts from forcing the outing of students' gender identity, per the California Department of Education. That legislation was authored by Assemblymember Chris Ward, who chairs California's Legislative LGBTQ Caucus.
State Lawmaker Weighs In, Idaho Groups Push Back
Ward praised Bonta's decision to join the legal challenge, saying every student deserves dignity, equal protection, and a safe learning environment. But not everyone in the debate agrees California should be involved at all. Greg Burt said California should respect laws enacted by other states, arguing Idaho has the authority to set its own policies regarding sex-separated facilities.
Burt also said the Idaho legislature's decision reflects the will of Idaho voters and is not bigotry. Idaho is not alone in enacting such restrictions — Kansas, Utah, and Florida have each enacted laws restricting transgender people's access to bathrooms and other facilities based on gender identity, underscoring how the fight playing out in an Idaho courtroom mirrors a wider pattern across multiple states.
Part of a Broader, Years-Long Legal Fight
This is not California's first clash with Idaho over transgender facility access. Bonta previously led a 21-state coalition in November 2023 that filed an amicus brief in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals opposing Idaho Senate Bill 1100, which barred transgender K-12 students from multi-user school restrooms, according to the California Department of Justice. HB 264 effectively extends those K-12 restrictions into higher education.
Idaho has also gone further in a separate law. In April, the state enacted House Bill 752, which criminalizes transgender individuals' use of restrooms matching their gender identity in government buildings and private businesses open to the public, with penalties reaching up to one year in prison for a first offense and five years for a second, according to the ACLU of Idaho. Six transgender Idaho residents filed a separate federal challenge against that law shortly after it passed, a case Hoodline detailed in May.
By mid-2026, Bonta's office had joined or led more than 40 multistate amicus briefs in federal courts defending LGBTQ+ civil rights and opposing state-level restrictions, according to Equality California. The legal landscape shifted last year when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in U.S. v. Skrmetti that state restrictions on age-based medical care for minors do not violate the Equal Protection Clause — a precedent now shaping how lower courts weigh Fourteenth Amendment challenges to state transgender statutes, per the California Department of Justice. Whether the Idaho federal judge grants the preliminary injunction, and how any ruling might fare on appeal before the Ninth Circuit, remains to be seen as litigation continues.
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