Benjamin Berwick, a Justice Department attorney, also said the guidelines do not have the force of law but instead represent the federal government’s evolving interpretation of anti-discrimination laws that pertain to public school students.
Advertisement
Utah was among 11 states that sued the Obama administration for clarification on a directive issued in May about transgender bathroom policies in schools.
In May, the Obama administration released a letter from the Justice Department and Education Department calling on school districts to allow transgender students to use the bathroom of the gender they identify with.
Plaintiffs argued in court filings that the Obama administration skirted statutory rules of lawmaking by issuing the guidance, and that school districts would be put under undue stress in reaching compliance.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a Republican, argued that President Obama was “attempting to rewrite the laws enacted by the elected representatives of the people”.
“In these situations we do go case by case, we look at that specific situation, and made decisions based on that individual student”.
“This recent injunction against transgender student protections stands in stark contrast to equality and we believe it will be overturned on appeal”.
Ruling out accommodations for transgender students, such as privacy curtains or separate bathrooms, Obama described ensuring bathroom and locker room access as a matter of fundamental civil rights.
The judge’s ruling, which came in a lawsuit brought by officials in 13 states, focuses narrowly on the transgender guidance that has become a major cause for social conservatives.
But a group of five civil rights organizations supporting the Obama policy said legal precedent protects transgender students from discrimination, which a single judge can not overturn. “The decision is certainly emotional and certainly an attack on transgender students’ dignity”.
She doesn’t see Monday’s ruling as something that prevents Denton ISD from “doing the right thing”, she said, adding, “It gives other schools permission to discriminate and harass transgender students and they won’t lose their Title IX funding”.
O’Connor’s ruling was met with disappointment in the Justice Department. Republicans say it contains common sense privacy safeguards.
The defendants, which include the USA departments of Education and Justice, retorted by saying they never threatened to stop funding schools that don’t make bathroom accommodations for transgender students. “That can not be allowed to continue, which is why we took action to protect States and School Districts, who are charged under state law to establish a safe and disciplined environment conducive to student learning”.
O’Connor, the Texas judge, alluded to the prospect of a Supreme Court decision on the issue, writing in his decision Sunday that “a Supreme Court in the near future may obviate the issues in this lawsuit”. In 2014, the state’s supreme court ruled in favor of Nicole Maines, an Orono girl who sued that school district after she was told in 2007 that she needed to use the bathroom that matched her gender at birth when the grandparent of another student, a boy, complained. Texas alone gets roughly $10 billion in federal education funds.
Advertisement
Two small school districts in Arizona and Texas, which have fewer than 600 students combined and no transgender people, also joined the effort.
