周四，联邦上诉法院分庭以2比1的投票结果恢复了两个弗吉尼亚州学区对教育部的诉讼，挑战因其跨性别学生政策而面临的联邦资金变动威胁。该裁决推翻了法官此前的认定，即位于国家首都郊区的费尔法克斯县和阿灵顿县学区起诉地点错误，应先向专门审理政府合同争议的特别法院提出论点。尽管多数意见认为原裁定不当，但强调其审查“仅止于此”，尚不清楚这些县的诉讼是否最终会成功。
A split federal appeals court panel on Thursday revived two Virginia school boards’ lawsuits against the Education Department challenging threatened federal funding changes over their policies concerning transgender students. It wipes a judge’s finding that school boards in Fairfax County and Arlington County — located in the suburbs of the nation’s capital — sued in the wrong place and needed to raise their arguments before a specialty court with exclusive authority to hear government contract disputes. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit voted 2-1 that was improper, but the majority stressed it was going “no further” and it has yet to be seen whether the counties’ lawsuits will succeed.
“由于学区提出的一些诉求在本质上并非纯粹的合同性质，地区法院因缺乏管辖权而全面驳回这些诉状的做法是错误的，”美国第四巡回上诉法院法官艾利森·琼斯·拉什（Allison Jones Rushing）写道。她是特朗普任命的法官。
“Because the school districts have asserted some claims that are not at their essence contractual, the district court erred in dismissing these complaints in full for lack of jurisdiction,” wrote U.S. Circuit Judge Allison Jones Rushing. The school boards sued last year after the Trump administration placed them in “high-risk status” over their refusals to change policies that allow transgender students in the bathrooms and locker rooms of their choosing.
学区去年起诉，原因是特朗普政府因其拒绝修改允许跨性别学生使用其选择的浴室和更衣室的政策，而将其列为“高风险状态”。该 designation 意味着教育部的拨款只能通过报销方式发放，而不能预付。
The designation means Education Department grants can only be done by reimbursement, not in advance.
拉什法官获特朗普任命，与奥巴马任命的美国巡回上诉法院法官阿尔伯特·迪亚兹（Albert Diaz）一起形成多数意见。特朗普任命的美国巡回上诉法院法官朱利叶斯·理查森（Julius Richardson）持异议。
Rushing, a Trump appointee, was joined in the majority by U.S. Circuit Judge Albert Diaz, an appointee of former President Obama. U.S. Circuit Judge Julius Richardson, a Trump appointee, dissented.
理查森写道：“剥去表面，学区的诉求其实很简单：他们希望合同付款能像以前一样提前进行。”“这些诉求根植于合同，而国会已将此类案件分配给联邦索赔法院审理。”
“Strip back the veneer, and the districts’ claims are simple: They want their contractual payments made in advance, as before,” Richardson wrote. “Those claims are founded upon contract, and Congress has assigned them to the Court of Federal Claims.”
他支持该案的初审法官罗西·奥尔斯顿（Rossie Alston），也是特朗普任命的法官。他们指出，最近最高法院在紧急情况下的裁决曾批评其他案件中的法官，未能阻止试图将合同纠纷带入联邦地区法院的原告。
He sided with the lower judge in the case, Rossie Alston, a Trump appointee. They pointed to recent Supreme Court emergency decisions chastising judges in other cases who’ve not diverted plaintiffs who’ve tried to bring contractual disputes into federal district courts.
今年早些时候，拉希ng承认，在一起涉及农业补助金的诉讼案中情况确实如此。不过周四，她表示部分学区委员会提出的诉求仍可继续推进。“总而言之，地区法院错误地认定，近期发布的禁令意味着法院对这些诉讼中的所有诉求均无管辖权，”拉希ng在文中写道。《国会山报》已联系教育部及各学区委员会的发言人以寻求置评。
Earlier this year, Rushing agreed that was the case for a lawsuit concerning agricultural grants. But on Thursday, she said some of the school boards’ claims can move forward. “In sum, the district court erred by concluding that the recent injunction decisions dictated that it lacked jurisdiction over all the claims in these complaints as a whole,” Rushing wrote. The Hill has reached out to spokespeople at the Education Department and the school boards for comment.