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I’m Making a Scene Over This Shower (& Bathroom) Law

It’s scary, so let’s film-crit it out. Famously directed by the U.S. Court of Appeals, 9th Circuit. Set in Idaho public schools.

Tucker Lieberman
5 min readMar 21, 2025
water circling down a drain. Black-and-white video still from the famous ‘shower scene’ in Hitchcock’s movie Psycho.
Alfred Hitchcock’s shower scene in Psycho (YouTube)

Today, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit came out with an opinion about which gendered public bathroom people should use.

Erin Reed explains it’s a “devastating precedent” as “the first significant decision in which Democratic-appointed judges have ruled against transgender protections.” It “prioritiz[es] cisgender discomfort over the tangible harm faced by transgender people” and delivers a “legal framework” for trans people to “be forced to live as their assigned sex at birth.”

The case is Roe v. Critchfield. Morgan Christen wrote the 36-page opinion. Kim McLane Wardlaw and Mark J. Bennett were the other two judges on the panel.

At issue was Idaho Senate Bill 1100 that requires public school students in Idaho to use the restrooms designated for their “biological sex,” unless they submit a “written request for reasonable accommodation,” in which case they’ll be allowed to use a single-occupant restroom. A student who encounters someone of the “opposite sex” in a multi-person restroom can sue the school for $5,000.

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Tucker Lieberman
Tucker Lieberman

Written by Tucker Lieberman

Cult classic. Author of the novel "Most Famous Short Film of All Time." Editor for Prism & Pen and Identity Current. tuckerlieberman.com

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