Measure banning transgender students from using preferred bathrooms stays on Arizona ballot

A Maricopa County Superior Court judge ruled a measure that would ban transgender students from using preferred bathrooms can stay on the ballot.

Republican state lawmakers referred the bathroom ban to voters. If approved in November, the measure would ban schools and athletic associations from allowing students to use a bathroom, shower or locker room that doesn’t match their sex assigned at birth.

An advocacy group sued to try and get the measure blocked from the ballot. Their attorney, Jim Barton, argued that it has too broad an impact, and therefore violates a law requiring measures to stick to a single subject.

“This is a bill allegedly about student sports and it should be confined to talking about student sports,” Barton said. “The fact that now we turn around and add in bathrooms and showers and locker rooms for everyone in the school — so long as the school has a sports program — for everyone in the school, that really expands it.”

Judge Greg Como rejected Barton’s argument from the bench on Thursday.

He ruled the measure is narrowly tailored because it will only apply to schools with athletic programs, so even though students who aren’t involved with athletics would be impacted, it still falls under the umbrella of sports.

“I just think the presumptions are just so strongly in favor of the legislature, and I think it does pass muster under those standards,” Como told Barton.