BREAKING: States Seek Injunction Blocking Obama’s Transgender Schools Directive

Motion Would Prevent Guidelines From Taking Effect Prior to 2016-17 School Year

Texas Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a motion Wednesday on behalf of 13 states seeking an injunction blocking President Barack Obama’s guidance directing public schools to allow transgender students to use restrooms based on their gender identity. 

“The nation’s schools, and every place of employment, are now in the crosshairs of the Obama Administration, which maintains it will punish those who do not comply with its orders,” Paxton said in a release. “Schools are facing the potential loss of funding for simply exercising the authority to implement the policies that best protect their students. Every employer is now being threatened for not bowing to anyone that identifies as the opposite sex.”

The Texas AG’s office filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of the states against Obama’s directive in May, alleging that it “has no basis in law” and could cause “seismic changes in the operations of the nation’s school districts.” 

“Defendants have conspired to turn workplaces and educational settings across the country into laboratories for a massive social experiment, flouting the democratic process, and running roughshod over commonsense policies protecting children and basic privacy rights,” the lawsuit states. “Defendants’ rewriting of Title VII and Title IX is wholly incompatible with Congressional text.” 

Read the full motion filed Wednesday here.