Under Indictment Attorney General Goes Galavanting Across State Lines
The Lone Star State’s top law enforcement official, himself under grand jury indictment for multiple counts of fraud, is going galavanting across state lines in his continuing war against the LGBT community. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is asking a federal court to freeze non-Texas lawsuits against North Carolina‘s anti-LGBT law HB2, after he received a favorable ruling from a hand-picked court against the Obama administration’s guidance to protect transgender students.
Paxton and other states had sued the Obama administration in federal court in Texas to block transgender people from using restrooms that correspond to their gender identity. Last week U.S. District Court Judge Reed O’Connor in Fort Worth issued a nationwide injunction against the Obama administration guidelines that protect transgender students.
Paxton, citing that ruling, now is asking U.S. District Court Judge Thomas Schroeder to effectively handcuff the Obama administration’s Justice Dept. by freezing its lawsuit against North Carolina and Governor Pat McCrory over enforcement of HB2.
“Putting the cases on hold as Paxton and the other states’ officials asked in the unusual filing on Wednesday (or denying the Obama administration’s request, a move the brief also supports) would mean that the anti-transgender law would remain in effect for the time being,” Buzzfeed reports.
HB2 is a wide-sweeping law that bans transgender people from using restrooms that correspond to their gender identity, along with banning local governments from enacting or enforcing laws related to minimum wage and nondiscrimination policies.
Paxton is joined by 12 other states in his quest to hamstring the Justice Dept. and attack transgender people.
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