USCA11 Case: 18-13592 Date Filed: 07/14/2021 Page: 17 of 80
the official school records” based on any government documentation provided after enrollment indicating the student’s sex. In other words, the policy requires that a student’s enrollment package prevail over current government records, even though those government-issued documents constitute controlling identification for any other purpose. Presumably, federal and state governments allow for a process for updating or correcting this type of personal information for a reason: to reflect and promote accuracy.
The School District gives no explanation for why a birth certificate provided at the time of enrollment takes priority over the same document provided at the time the bathroom policy is applied to the student. And we have come up with no explanation of our own. Mr. Adams has a birth certificate and a driver’s license issued by the state of Florida stating that he is male. But the School District refuses to accept for the purposes of the bathroom policy Mr. Adams’s sex listed on those current government-issued documents. This kind of irrationality does not satisfy intermediate review. See Reed, 404 U.S. at 76, 92 S. Ct. at 254 (“A classification must be reasonable, not arbitrary.” (quotation marks omitted)); Craig, 429 U.S. at 215, 97 S. Ct. at 466 (“The [sex-based] disparity created by these Oklahoma statutes amounts to total irrationality.”) (Stewart, J., concurring in the judgment).
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