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On June 16, U.S. District Court Judge Amanda K. Brailsford, a Biden appointee, issued a 30-page ruling granting a preliminary injunction blocking enforcement of Idaho’s H.B. 752, the felony bathroom ban — but it contains a major caveat: enforcement is only blocked when a single-user restroom is not available on the same floor. The law, set to take effect July 1, criminalizes transgender people for using restrooms consistent with their gender identity in both government buildings and private businesses, making it the most extreme bathroom ban in the nation. A first offense is a misdemeanor carrying up to a year in jail; a second offense is a felony carrying up to five years in prison; and under Idaho’s persistent violator statute, a fourth offense could carry life. The court found the law unconstitutionally vague, with no adequate standards for law enforcement to determine when or how to enforce it. Yet the ruling falls far short of fully protecting transgender Idahoans, and could result in the arrest of trans people who are unaware that they must check for single-user restrooms before entering a multi-user facility consistent with their gender identity.

“The Court enjoins enforcement of H.B. 752 as against all transgender people who seek to use a restroom in a government-owned building or place of public accommodation in Idaho consistent with their gender identity wherever: (1) the covered restroom designated for use by sex is a single-user facility; or (2) when a single-user restroom is not available because no single-user restroom exists on the same floor as the multi-user facilities or all single-user restrooms on the same floor as the multi-user facilities are occupied or not in service,” reads the ruling.

In practice, this means the law is only blocked when no single-user option exists — creating a regime in which transgender people must use single-user facilities whenever one is available on the same floor, or face potential criminal charges for using the multi-user restroom that matches their gender identity. Hospitals often have multi-user and single-user restrooms on the same floor. The same is true of airports. It applies at universities, shopping malls, convention centers, and large retail stores that have added........

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