The decision by a federal appeals court Friday to uphold a Florida school district’s policy barring trans students from using the restroom corresponding to their chosen sex could set up a showdown in the U.S. Supreme Court over the contentious issue.

In a 7-4 decision, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals held that the St. Johns County School Board policy that barred a biological female who identifies as male from using a high school’s boys’ restroom violates neither the student’s constitutional right to equal protection nor Title IX, the federal law against discrimination by schools based on sex. The court’s ruling differs on substance from a 2020 decision by the 4th Circuit striking down a similar policy in Gloucester County, Virginia.

“Given the countervailing decision of the Fourth Circuit in G.G. v. Gloucester County, there is now a conflict in the circuits that could prompt a Supreme Court review,” said George Washington University Law Professor Jonathan Turley.

The court ruled 7-4 against a statutory and constitutional challenge of a transgender student to a district policy requiring students to use bathrooms corresponding to their biological sex… https://t.co/YppVW9Kius

— Jonathan Turley (@JonathanTurley) December 31, 2022

In the decision handed down Friday, the court ruled against plaintiff Drew Adams, who was required to use a gender-neutral, single-stall bathroom or girls’ bathrooms while attending Nease High School. Judge Barbara Lagoa, a former Florida state Supreme Court justice, wrote in the majority opinion that the policy was implemented to protect the privacy of students.

“The school board’s bathroom policy is clearly related to — indeed, is almost a mirror of — its objective of protecting the privacy interests of students to use the bathroom away from the opposite sex and to shield their bodies from the opposite sex in the bathroom, which, like a locker room or shower facility, is one of the spaces in a school where such bodily exposure is most likely to occur,” Lagoa wrote.

The decision broke down on partisan lines as Republican appointees Chief Judge William Pryor and judges Elizabeth Branch, Andrew Brasher, Britt Grant, Robert Luck, and Kevin Newsom all joined Lagoa’s opinion. All four dissenters were appointed by Democratic presidents.

In one dissenting opinion, Judge Jill Pryor wrote that the policy meant Adams was “was forced to endure a stigmatizing and humiliating walk of shame — past the boys’ bathrooms and into a single-stall ‘gender neutral’ bathroom.” She said the court majority “labels Adams as unfit for equal protection based on his transgender status.”

In her opinion, Pryor adopted the gender theory argument that biological sex and gender identity are not the same thing.

“To start, the majority opinion simply declares — without any basis — that a person’s ‘biological sex’ is comprised solely of chromosomal structure and birth-assigned sex,” Pryor wrote.

Judge Charles Wilson, in a separate dissent, claimed that the policy was rooted in the “medically and scientifically flawed” idea that people can’t change their sex.

The school’s policy provided for a gender-neutral restroom and could also trans students who had documentation of their altered status prior to enrollment to use the restroom of their choice.

The ruling reversed an earlier one in the case by the United States District Court for the Middle District of Florida. A three-judge circuit court panel initially upheld the lower court’s decision over Pryor’s dissent, but then vacated that decision and held an en banc hearing, or one before the entire circuit.

The U.S. Supreme Court expressly stated that it was not ruling on transgender restroom issue in its 2020 decision in Bostock v. Clayton County. In that case, a 6-3 majority ruled that it is impossible to discriminate against a person based on their sexual orientation or gender identity without discriminating based on sex. Adams relied on that ruling in bringing the case against the Florida school district, even though the high court explicitly stated it did not apply to school restroom policies.

“We do not purport to address bathrooms, locker rooms, or anything else of the kind,” the high court wrote in Bostock. “The only question before us is whether an employer who fires someone simply for being homosexual or transgender has discharged or otherwise discriminated against that individual “because of such individual’s sex.”

The Florida majority said that Title IX allows the district to have separate restrooms for biological girls and boys, pointing out that the statute’s reference to “sex” is not synonymous with “gender identity” or “transgender status.”

“Affirming the district court’s order and adopting Adams’s definition of “sex” under Title IX to include “gender identity” or “transgender status” would have had repercussions far beyond the bathroom door,” Lagoa wrote.

A policy allowing students to use the restroom of their choice would open sports, living facilities, showers, and locker rooms up to the same rules, Lagoa said. That could defeat one of the original purposes of Title IX, which was to give girls and women a chance to compete at sports, Lagoa said.

“A definition of ‘sex’ beyond ‘biological sex’ would not only cut against the vast weight of drafting-era dictionary definitions … but would also force female student athletes to compete against students who have a very significant biological advantage, including students who have the size and strength of a male but identify as female,” she wrote.

VATICAN CITY — Pope Benedict XVI, the former head of the Catholic Church whose historic resignation in 2013 created the position of “pope emeritus,” has died following a short illness. He was 95 years old.

The Vatican confirmed his death Saturday local time. His body will lie in state at St. Peter’s Basilica beginning January 2, the Vatican said.

A distinguished theologian and prolific writer, the late pontiff began his reign in 2005, following the death of Pope John Paul II. But his papacy ended abruptly in 2013 when he resigned due to health concerns in his advancing age. He was the first pope to step down in 600 years.

Benedict XVI’s legacy, consistent with his traditionally orthodox views, includes reaffirming the Church’s stance against heterodoxy, abortion, contraception, and women’s ordination. He imposed restrictions on homosexuals becoming priests, despite heavy resistance from activists within the Church. Of note, Benedict’s legacy included his declaration (or Motu Proprio) Summorum Pontificum allowing the Traditional Latin Mass to be celebrated freely without need of permission from Bishops — something that has all but been reversed by Benedict’s successor, Pope Francis.

Benedict also found himself handling one of the Church’s biggest crises in decades as allegations of clerical child sex abuse piled up. The pope demanded responsibility for “sin within the Church,” and, even as Cardinal, highlighted the “weakness of human beings” and a “weakness of faith” as the root cause of the scandals. Detractors, though, say the pope effectively helped to keep the “scandals under wraps.” Allegations of cover-up, however, continue to plague the Church.

The youngest of three children, Joseph Ratzinger was born in Bavaria, Germany, on April 16, 1927, to a father who was a police officer and a mother who was a cook. He quickly knew he wanted to become a priest — following in the footsteps of his older brother, Georg — though his upbringing was interrupted by the rise of the Nazi Party, which took power when he was just six years old.

His parents, staunch Catholics, were opposed to Nazism — and personally affected by it. Biographer John Allen said that Cardinal Ratzinger disclosed in 1996 that the family had a 14-year-old cousin with Down syndrome who was taken away by Nazis in 1941 for “therapy.” The family soon after learned the boy was dead, likely exterminated for his disability.

As a young man, Joseph Ratzinger and his brother, Georg, were compelled to join the Hitler Youth and, in 1943, Joseph was drafted into the German military. Toward the end of the war, the future pope deserted his post and was captured by U.S. forces. He would return to seminary, along with his brother, upon his release.

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Ratzinger’s brother, Georg, once recalled the story of his brother’s return to his family to the British Broadcasting Company, noting that Joseph had devoted his life to the reverence of the liturgy. Once Joseph Ratzinger was released by the Americans, he made a 70-mile trip back to his home. Upon his return, when he found his family was attending Mass, Ratzinger would not go inside the church, fearing he would create “a disturbance.”

“It is not a personal plaything, but a gift from God,” Georg recounted regarding the liturgy. Both Ratzinger brothers were ordained together, in 1951.

After receiving his doctorate of theology, Ratzinger taught as a professor at several universities. During this time, his views were said to have shifted from more liberal to far more conservative, a reaction to the radical “student revolutions.” His conservative views would inform his opposition to Marxism, the “dictatorship of relativism.”

Later in his life, Ratzinger recalled a “traumatic memory” from his time as a university professor, when he witnessed theology students releasing a flyer that said, “The New Testament is a document of inhumanity, a large scale deception of the masses.” The flyer asked, “So what is Jesus’s Cross but the expression of a sado-masochistic glorification of pain?”

“It is true I saw a new spirit creeping in,” Ratzinger said. “A spirit in which fanatical ideologies made use of the spirit of Christianity. … Here I saw very clearly … that there was an abuse of the Church and the faith, which were used as instruments of power.”

Ratzinger, in his service to the church, participated in all four sessions of the Second Vatican Council. Even at this time, he was considered a liberal voice in support of reforms. In 1977, he was named Archbishop of Munich and Freising, and months later, was elevated to Cardinal of Munich. By 1981, however, Cardinal Ratzinger was considered one of the foremost adherents to orthodoxy and named Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith by Pope John Paul II. Eventually, he would also attain leadership in the College of the Cardinals.

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A self-described introvert, Cardinal Ratzinger was known to be extremely shy and uncomfortable in large crowds. He was an avid reader, scholar, and pianist, often seen accompanied by his late brother, Georg, or a number of cats he looked after — including a beloved black and white cat named Chico.

Following the death of Pope John Paul II on April 2, 2005, the papal conclave convened to elect the next pope: Cardinal Ratzinger. At age 78, Ratzinger accepted the election, stating, “Pray for me, that I may not flee for fear of the wolves.”

During this first general audience, the pope explained that he chose to call himself Benedict XVI as a link to Pope Benedict XV, who headed the Catholic Church during the First World War.

“He was a true and courageous prophet of peace who struggled strenuously and bravely, first to avoid the drama of war and then to limit its terrible consequences,” he said. “In his footsteps I place my ministry, in the service of reconciliation and harmony between peoples, profoundly convinced that the great good of peace is above all a gift of God, a fragile and precious gift to be invoked, safeguarded and constructed, day after day and with everyone’s contribution.”

Early in his papacy, Pope Benedict XVI made it a point to denounce Nazism, the ideology that was dominant through much of his youth, and made an important visit to Israel in 2009. He was eventually lauded by Israeli leaders as a friend who helped promote dialogue and coexistence.

“I greatly appreciate him for his immense activity to interfaith connection that has contributed greatly to the reduction of anti-Semitism in the world,” Yona Metzger, one of Israel’s two chief rabbis, said of him. “I pray that his legacy is preserved and that the trends he led will continue since the relations between the rabbinate and the church during his term were the best ever.”

Under his pontificate, Pope Benedict utilized social media, joining Twitter as he endeavored to follow St. John Paul II’s efforts to advance the Church into the modern era. Notably, Pope Francis assumed the papal Twitter handle after his elevation.

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On February 11, 2013, Pope Benedict shocked the world when he announced his resignation from the papacy — citing his advanced age and health.

“I am simply a pilgrim beginning the last leg of his pilgrimage on this Earth,” the pope said in his final farewell in front of more than 50,000 people packed into St. Peter’s Square. “But I would still … with my heart, with my love, with my prayers, with my reflection, and with all my inner strength, like to work for the common good and the good of the Church and of humanity.”

He formally stepped down on February 28, 2013.

Bree Dail reported from Vatican City. Amanda Prestigiacomo reported from New York.