The Supreme Court refused to review a lower court’s decision to allow a transgender student in the boy’s restroom at an Indiana middle school on Tuesday.

The court rejected without comment or published dissent an appeal from Metropolitan School District of Martinsville. The family of the transgender student sued the school district when officials barred him from using the boys’ restroom in 2023. Tuesday’s decision leaves a federal appeals court ruling favoring the student intact.

Human rights advocates praised the decision on social media.

“This case is about the fundamental right of every student to a safe and inclusive learning environment, and the freedom of transgender youth to be themselves. We’re thankful the Court allowed this momentous victory for the transgender youth of Indiana to stand,” ACLU of Indiana wrote on X Tuesday.

U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of a student last year but Judge Diane Wood said she anticipated the Supreme Court would intervene eventually, as litigation over transgender rights proliferates throughout the country. In the meantime, the court will adhere to standards applied in a 2017 ruling out of Wisconsin.

Ashton Whitaker, a trans highschooler, and his mother sued Kenosha Unified School District after school officials refused to let Whitaker use the boys restroom. A U.S. District Judge granted Whitaker permission to continue using the boys restroom, but the school district appealed the decision, arguing it would disproportionately harm other students. A unanimous three-judge panel of the 7th Circuit rejected the appeal.

At issue in Metropolitan School District of Martinsville v. A.C. is whether bathroom restrictions violate the Constitution’s equal protection clause and a law prohibiting discrimination in schools that receive federal funding.

Court documents in the case state A.C., a transgender child at John R. Wooden Middle School, grew angry, humiliated and depressed over the school district’s policy which requires him to either use the girls bathroom or sign a permission slip to use a single-user restroom in the school’s health office.

The Supreme Court has declined to weigh in on similar cases before. In 2021, the high court rejected a petition from a Virginia school board after a 4th Circuit Appeals Court ruled the school’s bathroom restrictions violated Title IX and the Equal Protection Clause by prohibiting transgender student Gavin Grimm from using the same restrooms as other boys and forcing him to use separate restrooms.

The decision set a precedent covering schools in Virginia, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina and West Virginia.