South Carolina enacted a budget proviso barring transgender K-12 students from restrooms matching their gender identity

On July 3, 2024, South Carolina's FY2024-25 General Appropriations Act (H.5100, ratified as R-252) took effect carrying Budget Proviso 1.120, a rider added by Sen. Wes Climer during Senate floor debate on the budget. The proviso directs every K-12 public school district, including charter and special schools, to designate multi-occupancy restrooms, locker rooms, changing facilities, and overnight sleeping quarters for use by students of one biological sex only, and it withholds 25 percent of a district's state operating funds from any district found in violation.

Governor Henry McMaster announced 21 line-item vetoes to the budget the same day at a Statehouse news conference, all directed at unrelated appropriations; he left Proviso 1.120 in place, and it governed the 2024-25 school year. The South Carolina Department of Education issued implementation guidance to districts on July 23, 2024.

This budget rider was the originating instance of a mandate South Carolina later repeated in its FY2025-26 budget and then codified as the standalone Student Physical Privacy Act. Placing the restriction in an annual appropriations act, rather than a freestanding bill, attached a binding civil-rights limitation to must-pass spending legislation.

Updates

2025-08-12 — Fourth Circuit enjoined enforcement against a Berkeley County student [5, 6]

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit granted a preliminary injunction in Doe v. State of South Carolina, a class action Public Justice and cooperating counsel filed in November 2024, barring the state, the Board of Education, the Department of Education, and the Berkeley County School District from enforcing Proviso 1.120 against the plaintiff, a 13-year-old transgender student, while his appeal proceeded. The court also denied the state's motion to dismiss. The injunction applied only to the individual plaintiff; the proviso remained in force elsewhere.

2025-09-10 — Supreme Court declined to stay the injunction [7]

The U.S. Supreme Court denied South Carolina's request to stay the Fourth Circuit's injunction in an unsigned order, leaving the plaintiff free to continue using the boys' restroom while litigation proceeded. Justices Thomas, Alito, and Gorsuch dissented and would have granted the state's request. The Court did not rule on the underlying constitutional claims.

2025-10-17 — Plaintiff withdrew his individual appeal [8]

The Berkeley County student withdrew his appeal to the Fourth Circuit after switching to virtual school amid other anti-transgender discrimination; the underlying class claims remained active in the district court.