Welcome to Gavel Drop, our roundup of legal news, headlines, and head-shaking moments in the courts.

Three transgender high school students in Pittsburgh have sued their school district for forcing them to use bathrooms that align with their biological sex rather than their gender identity.

Meanwhile, school officials in Elgin, Illinois, plan to stand by their policy of letting students use bathrooms and locker rooms that correspond with their gender identity rather than biological sex despite objections from some parents.

The New York State Health Department proposed a new rule that would allow youth being treated for gender dysphoria to receive Medicaid coverage for hormonal treatments. If this happens, it would be a significant step forward in nondiscrimination in health insurance coverage.

Also, voter ID laws threaten to disenfranchise thousands of transgender voters this election.

This story is just tragic. A California mother is suing a hospital after she claims staff consistently referred to her transgender son as a “girl,” worsening a mental health crisis that eventually spiraled into suicide.

Alabama is the latest state to get behind a Washington florist who refused services to a gay couple in the name of religious liberty, joining in a lawsuit on the florist’s behalf.

The city of Jackson, Mississippi, has entered into its second consent decree with anti-choice protesters who claim local police officers are interfering with their First Amendment rights by overzealously protecting the only abortion clinic in the state from their protests.

Members of the polygamous Mormon Fundamentalist LDS Church—not to be confused with the Church of Latter-Day Saints, of which it is an offshoot—are arguing they have a First Amendment religious right to funnel food stamps and other government benefits to their church, as a defense to criminal charges that the group engaged in massive benefits fraud.

An Amish man convicted on charges related to cutting the hair and beards of members of a different Amish group is hoping the U.S. Supreme Court takes his case. And did we mention that the hair cutter’s last name is Mullet?

The Johnson Amendment prohibits churches and pastors from endorsing candidates or otherwise politicizing from the pulpit, which is why conservatives have coordinated a campaign to challenge it.

The Atlantic has this must-read on how many states don’t consider it abuse when children are injured or killed by faith-healing practices.

The Supreme Court opened its term by refusing to hear the case of Joseph Hall, who, as a 10-year-old boy, shot and killed his abusive Neo-Nazi father. In 2013, Hall was convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to 10 years in a juvenile correctional facility.

The city of Columbus, Georgia, has been unlawfully fining victims who do not cooperate with police in their domestic abuse investigations—even if they did not report the abuse—according to a federal lawsuit filed on victims’ behalf.

InterVarsity Christian Fellowship USA, an evangelical youth organization with chapters on more than 650 college campuses, announced plans to fire all staffers who support marriage equality.