The lawsuit accuses the Obama administration of “running roughshod over commonsense policies” that protect children. The Justice Department says US schools must let transgender students use the bathrooms and locker rooms that match their gender identity.
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The lawsuit was filed in the Northern District of Texas. “These schools are facing the potential loss of school funding for simply following common sense policies that protect their students”, Texas Attorney General Paxton said. He and state Attorney General Ken Paxton said the Harrold school district made a decision to adopt its own bathroom policy to protect students’ privacy – a policy Paxton said is at odds with federal guidelines, despite including accommodations on a “case-by-case basis”, and puts the district at risk of losing federal funds. The law applied to all public facilities in schools and elsewhere.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott confirmed the lawsuit Wednesday morning at a book signing hours before Paxton formally announced the challenge.
The Obama administration said earlier this month that students’ gender identity is protected under Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, which prevents federally funded schools from discriminating based on sex. The Obama administration is now in the midst of another lawsuit against the state of North Carolina over HB 2, part of which restricts transgender people to use only those facilities that correspond to their biological sex at birth.
The federal government says students should be able to use the bathroom that corresponds with their gender identity. President Barack Obama, who established his bona fides as a gay and lesbian rights champion when he endorsed same-sex marriage, has steadily extended his administrations advocacy to the community to the smallest and least accepted band of the LGBT rainbow: transgender Americans.
State lawmakers plan to hold a hearing sometime this summer to look at how the directive affects schools and transgender students.
The lawsuit specifically names the U.S. Department of Education, the Department of Justice, the Department of Labor and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) as defendants.
Critics of the government’s school directive say it poses security risks, potentially allowing male sexual predators to gain access to girls’ restrooms. “The lawsuit will identify whether states and local school boards remain free to find solutions on a case-by-case basis, suited to the needs of individual families”.
The 11 states’ lawsuit accused the administration of taking that argument too far and improperly, widening the scope of interpretation of civil rights law.
“Make no mistake: This is not a reinterpretation of terms, it is an entire rewrite of law”, he said, calling out Obama for attempting to “circumvent” Congress on the issue.
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“The Supreme Court has made clear that one can not sue an agency just because you disagree with the agency’s guidance”.
