Judge Grants Temporary Order Against Bathroom Bill
A district court judge in Missoula on Tuesday, April 1, temporarily blocked state officials from enforcing a new Montana law restricting access to public restrooms, changing rooms and sleeping spaces based on an individual’s sex assigned at birth.
Missoula District Court Judge Shane Vannatta’s ruling said a temporary restraining order on House Bill 121 is warranted and will preserve the status quo until the court can rule on a motion for a preliminary injunction. The court scheduled a hearing for April 21.
Gov. Greg Gianforte signed HB 121 Thursday, March 27, praising the legislature’s speedy passage of a bill that safeguards “fairness, privacy and security for women and girls.”
The same day, the ACLU of Montana filed a lawsuit on behalf of five transgender and intersex individuals from across Montana who would be “immediately” impacted by the “terrible law,” according to the organization’s legal director, Alex Rate.
The Governor’s Office did not respond to a request for comment on the lawsuit.
The law, introduced by Rep. Kerri Seekins-Crowe, R-Billings, applies to all public facilities and those that receive public funding, including correctional centers, juvenile detention facilities, local domestic violence programs, public buildings and public schools. It includes leased public spaces and covers libraries, museums, hospitals and university buildings.
In the suit, the five plaintiffs allege HB 121 violates their rights under the state constitution including “the rights to equal protection, privacy, to pursue life’s basic necessities, and due process.”
If implemented, the bill “would make it difficult, if not impossible, for transgender and intersex Montanans to participate in public life — to work, attend school, go to the courthouse or the Motor Vehicle Division, or visit a library or state park,” the complaint states, and essentially “excludes intersex people from these facilities altogether.”
The bill, Vannatta wrote, “is motivated by animus and supported by no evidence that its restrictions advance its purported purpose to protect women’s safety and privacy.”
But the law, along with another law barring transgender individuals from participating in sports aligning with their gender identity, have been priorities for the Republican majority in the Legislature, as seen by the bills’ swift passage through both chambers.
HB 121 was one of the first bills heard during the 69th Legislative session, and Gianforte also made it a major point in his State of the State speech in January.
Speaker of the House Brandon Ler, R-Savage, said when the bill was signed that the measure represented a “common sense” victory and showed that “in Montana, we still believe in biological reality.”
Vannatta said the plaintiffs had shown “at least serious questions going to the merits” of their claims, and that they “are concretely harmed” by the law’s denial of access to facilities that align with their gender identity.
The order also states that intersex people, who do not fit the law’s definitions of male and female, “do not know whether they are permitted to use any sex-separated facilities at all.”
A hearing on the plaintiffs’ motion for a preliminary injunction is scheduled for 1 p.m. on April 21 in the Missoula County Courthouse.
