[W] hile this injunction remains in place, [the Obama administration is] enjoined from initiating, continuing, or concluding any investigation based on [its] interpretation that the definition of sex includes gender identity in Title IX’s prohibition against discrimination on the basis of sex.
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The ruling was the second recent setback for transgender advocates. Little change for schools that already have guidelines.
At a hearing August 12, the first in the case against the federal government, a member of the Texas attorney general’s team told O’Connor that the federal government “usurped” the authority of states and schools by requiring that “sexes must be mixed” in “intimate areas” like bathrooms. Many school districts depend on federal funds to help bridge budget gaps and keep student programming intact. The letter said all students should immediately be allowed to use the bathrooms, locker rooms and showers that align with their gender identity.
“So if someone is in a transgender process and they aren’t comfortable in the bathroom of the sex they were born with we would have an alternate bathroom for people to use”, says Uselman.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who requested that the local Harrold Independent School District join the multi-state lawsuit, celebrated the injunction on Monday.
The lawsuit and the new guidance pointed out that a school risks losing federal funding if it treats a trans student differently from the way it treats other students of the same gender identity.
The high Court may choose to hear the case this fall when the next term begins in October, putting transgender issues under the public spotlight again in just a few months. “But it’s not really clear at all what legal weight that should have, especially here in ME where we have independent state protections”. The Texas Attorney General’s office praised the ruling, while the U.S. Department of Justice said it was disappointed and was reviewing its legal options.
The U.S. Supreme Court also recently addressed the issue.
A federal court issued a preliminary injunction on Sunday, Aug. 21, preventing the enforcement of White House guidelines regarding restroom access by transgender students in public schools. In March, North Carolina passed a law requiring people to use public toilets that correspond with the sex listed on their birth certificate.
Administration officials argue that telling students they can’t use the facilities of the gender they identify with amounts to sex discrimination. She has become increasingly vocal about the rights of transgender students after her son, MG, came out about a year ago. Republicans say it contains common sense privacy safeguards. The 13 states included Alabama, Arizona, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, West Virginia and Wisconsin.
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In 2015, O’Connor granted an order that temporarily blocked federal rules that would have expanded medical leave benefits to some gay couples.
