Eleven states sue Obama administration over student transgender bathroom use

The Department of Education ordered schools to create policies to grant bathroom access to transgender students in accordance with their identities or risk losing billions in federal funding.

President Obama’s directive ordering schools to accommodate transgender students has now prompted a lawsuit by 11 states, but since 2012 Seattle has mandated that transgender students can use the bathrooms and locker rooms of their choice.

This marks the administration’s second major lawsuit over transgender bathroom rights, as it is already involved in a suit and counter-suit against North Carolina over that state’s controversial bathroom bill, which the Justice Department has branded discriminatory. U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch has said “there is no room in our schools for discrimination”.

“This unlawful directive rewrites federal law and forces a seismic shift in local schools”, West Virginia Attorney General Morrisey said in a prepared statement.

And it’s that aspect that led eleven states and state representatives to file a lawsuit against the federal government on Wednesday accusing it of overreach and – in the words of Texas lieutenant governor Dan Patrick – “blackmail”.

“I definitely do not support taking funding, but if they do, then I definitely believe in this country’s legal system”, said a man in the Northgate district.

DOJ along with the directive has threatened to withhold federal public education dollars from states that refuse to comply.

MS is to join Texas and ten other states in a lawsuit against President Obama over his administration’s strong stance defending transgender rights.

“Arizona’s objective in joining this lawsuit is to get out of following the Obama administration guidelines”, he said.

The Texas lawsuit is asking the court to block the federal government from implementing or enforcing its new rules and interpretation.

The administration charges that the new legislation is in violation of a handful of federal laws, including Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 and the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2013. The law applies to schools and many other places.

Paxton said Harrold’s school board also included accommodations for special circumstances with students on a quote: ‘case by case basis’.