Greg Abbott said Wednesday that the state’s attorney general, Ken Paxton, would challenge the controversial order, which tells school district to allow transgender students to use the restroom of their choice.
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The challenge follows a federal directive to US schools to let transgender students use the bathrooms and locker rooms that match their gender identity. It accuses President Obama’s administration of “running roughshod over commonsense policies” that protect children, and asks a judge to declare the directive unlawful.
According to a July 2015 report from the Texas Tribune, Texas Republicans have filed suit against the federal government 38 times since President Obama took office at a cost of $5.1 million to Texas taxpayers. A small Arizona school district also joined in the lawsuit.
The suit comes just 12 days after the Departments of Education and Justice announced they would henceforth interpret the federal Title IX law as prohibiting all discrimination on the basis of gender identity.
The states claim that the directive demands “seismic changes” in schools across the US and forces them to let students choose a bathroom “that match their chosen “gender identity” on any given day”.
“Texas will sue to stop Obama’s transgender directive to schools”, the tweet read.
Surprise! Texas is suing the Obama administration.
The lawsuit is filed against the Education and Justice Departments, the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the Department of Labor, and officials at the respective agencies. Tellingly, Paxton sidestepped answering whether or not he believed transgender students actually exist and was unable to point to any documented instances of sexual assault in restrooms by transgender students. “The Constitution gives only Congress the power to write and rewrite laws”.
The administration has fought these rulings, and Supreme Court will eventually make a final decision on the matter.
North Carolina has been punished for its stance, as celebrities, potential employers and trade shows have boycotted the state in the wake of its stand against transgender bathroom access.
The move could cost the district federal education dollars, but Thweatt says it is worth it.
The lawsuit filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Wichita Falls, Texas, argues that Congress” understanding of ” “sex, ‘ as a protected class, refers only to one’s biological sex, as male or female, and not the radical re-authoring of the term now being foisted upon Americans”.
Speaking to reporters at a meeting in Orlando, Scott added, “If you think that this new federal mandate is going to say that a man can walk into the bathroom of a young girl or a locker room, that’s concerning”.
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“While the department will review the complaint, the federal government has strong legal foundations to uphold the civil rights of transgender Americans”, Iverson said.
