Court: Obama Transgender Bathroom Directive Blocke
Post# of 50563
The conflict began when on May 13,
the Department of Education (DOE) Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights, and the Department of Justice (DOJ) Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights, sent a “Dear Colleague Letter on Transgender Students” to state and local agencies that receive federal financial assistance from the DOE. The Office of Civil Rights in the DOE joined with the DOJ and sent a letter which they represented should serve as “significant guidance” to school districts.
As reported by Breitbart Texas, the Texas Attorney General sued the U.S. Department of Education, the U.S. Department of Justice, and other federal agencies and officials for commanding that Texas public schools open restrooms and locker rooms to both sexes.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton represents a 13-state coalition in the federal lawsuit in the Northern District of Texas. Texas and the other states that joined the Lone Star State are challenging the Obama Administration’s directive forcing local schools to allow students to use whatever bathrooms and other intimate facilities they wish that are consistent with their gender self-concept on a given day. Obama’s gender-fluid policy directed schools to abide by the policy without allowing local educators to decide what is best for their school and community.
The State of Texas is defending a local school district whose school policies are in conflict with the Obama Administration directive, the Harrold Independent School District. Harrold, Texas, is located in Wilbarger County and borders Oklahoma.
Attorney General Paxton released the following statement after the most recent favorable ruling for the Texas-led coalition:
“I am proud to lead a coalition of 13 states against the Obama Administration’s latest illegal federal overreach. The court’s reaffirmation of a nationwide injunction should send a clear message to the president that Texas won’t sit idly by as he continues to ignore the Constitution. The president cannot rewrite the laws enacted by the elected representatives of the people and then threaten to take away funding from schools to force them to fall in line.”
The parties were “Ordered to brief the remaining issues of whether the Defendants’ Guidelines are enjoined in total or whether the principal of severability applies to them, whether the injunction implicates Title VII in any manner (and specifically where school employees and staff may share intimate facilities with students), and whether OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) or DOL (Department of Labor) activity is implicated by the injunction.”
The plaintiffs were given a deadline of October 24 to respond and defendants must reply by October 28.