Policy on school restrooms halted
Judge blocks U.S. transgender policy as states’ suit proceeds
A federal judge in Texas has temporarily blocked a federal directive meant to expand restroom access for transgender students in the nation’s public schools.
Texas and a dozen other states sued in an attempt to block the federal directive shortly after it was released in May, and in a 38-page opinion issued Sunday, U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor of the Northern District of Texas temporarily prohibited the federal government from enforcing it as that lawsuit proceeds.
President Barack Obama’s administration has said schools must allow transgender students to use the restrooms and school facilities that match their gender identity, citing it as a civil-rights issue protected under the federal law known as Title IX, which prohibits sex-based discrimination in any federally funded education program or activity.
O’Connor, who was appointed to the federal bench by President George W. Bush, also ruled that the federal Education and Justice departments may not start or complete any investigations based on the administration’s interpretation that Title IX’s “definition of sex includes gender identity.”
The states argued that the federal government overstepped its authority and effectively issued new regulations for Title IX without going through the proper federal rule-writing process. Opponents of the policy have argued that it violates states’ rights, abridges student privacy rights and puts them at risk in the assumed safe spaces of single-sex restrooms.
In granting a preliminary injunction against the government’s guidance, O’Connor ruled that the states were likely to win the case on the merits of their arguments. O’Connor’s ruling takes effect just as students across the country are returning from summer vacation.
Republican officials who opposed the directive welcomed the court’s decision and said it will protect students and allow individual school districts and states to address the issue in a way appropriate for their communities.
“This President is attempting to rewrite the laws enacted by the elected representatives of the people, and is threatening to take away federal funding from schools to force them to conform,” Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said in a statement Monday. “That cannot 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.”
Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange, whose state also is a plaintiff in the case, said he had joined the lawsuit to prevent “social experimenters in Washington” from dictating Alabama schools’ restroom policies. Strange called the judge’s ruling “a victory for parents and children all across Alabama.”
Dena Iverson, a spokesman for the Justice Department, said in a statement that the agency is disappointed in the court’s decision and reviewing its options.
Arkansas and eight other states have joined Nebraska in a separate lawsuit challenging the policy.
“I am pleased that the district court in Texas has acted to protect districts across the country while the full legality of this policy is determined,” Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge said in a statement Monday. “I am confident it will be determined that the Obama administration once again overstepped in its attempt to rewrite law.”
The American Civil Liberties Union, which is representing a transgender student in Virginia in a case that has brought a higher court ruling that might make its way to the U.S. Supreme Court, said Sunday’s ruling should not affect any ongoing cases about transgender rights.
“A ruling by a single judge in one circuit cannot and does not undo the years of clear legal precedent nationwide establishing that transgender students have the right to go to school without being singled out for discrimination,” the ACLU said in a statement. “This unfortunate and premature ruling may, however, confuse school districts that are simply trying to support their students, including their transgender students. So let us make it clear to those districts: your obligations under the law have not changed, and you are still not only allowed but required to treat transgender students fairly.”
The 4th Circuit Court of Appeals, which hears appeals from district courts in Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina, decided in April that Gavin Grimm, a transgender high school student who was born female, can sue his Virginia school board on discrimination grounds because it banned him from the boys’ restroom. The defendant in that case, Virginia’s Gloucester County School Board, plans to ask the Supreme Court to review the case.
Other advocates for gay and transgender rights emphasized that Sunday’s decision does not prevent transgender individuals from suing to protect their rights.
“Students, parents and community groups are still able to — and we expect will continue to — bring lawsuits against schools that discriminate,” said Harper Jean, director of policy for the National Center for Transgender Equality. “And we expect that most schools will continue to do the right thing. Title IX still applies to them no matter what this one judge says.”