School board to pay ACLU’s legal costs over bathroom lawsuit

By BEN FINLEY
Associated Press

NORFOLK, Va. (AP) — A school board in Virginia has agreed to pay $1.3 million in legal costs to the American Civil Liberties Union. The ACLU spent six years representing a student who sued over the school board’s transgender bathroom ban. Gavin Grimm’s suit against the Gloucester County School Board ended in June after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected the board’s appeal to reinstate its bathroom policy. Lower courts ruled that the policy discriminated against Grimm because he was barred from the boys bathroom. The board agreed to the pay the costs in a court filing Thursday. Grimm says he hopes the legal costs send a message that discrimination is an expensive and losing battle.