The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin recently granted the Parents’ motion to dissolve a preliminary injunction that had previously barred the a school district from enforcing its policy requiring students to use restrooms and locker rooms according to their sex assigned at birth. The court found that the injunction no longer served a practical purpose because the transgender student who had sought the injunction was now attending a private school where the district’s policy did not apply and no longer sought prospective relief.
The case originated when a transgender student challenged the school district’s restroom policy as discriminatory under federal law, prompting the court to issue a preliminary injunction in 2023 allowing her to use facilities aligning with her gender identity. After the injunction was appealed to the Seventh Circuit, the student transferred to a private placement under her IEP and indicated she no longer required injunctive relief, though she continued to pursue monetary damages for past discrimination. The district opposed dissolving the injunction to preserve appellate review, but the court rejected that reasoning, holding that defendants cannot compel unwanted relief for a plaintiff.
The Seventh Circuit had previously withdrawn its opinion upholding the injunction against the school district. By seeking to dissolve the injunction in the trial court they effectively ended the litigation and were thus able to achieve a practical impact of leaving intact prior Seventh Circuit opinions in favor of transgender student access to the bathroom with which they identify.
Source: Jane Doe #1 v. Mukwonago Area School District, et al., No. 23-CV-876 (E.D. Wis. Nov. 7, 2025)
