No ruling in attempt to halt Obama Administration’s pro-trans schools directive
No immediate ruling has been made in a legal challenge by thirteen states to the Obama Administration’s sweeping directive in favour of trans rights for students.
The Obama administration has intervened on LGBT rights earlier this year after a string of laws attempted to roll back LGBT discrimination protections, purportedly to stop trans people from going to the bathroom.
The federal government wrote to every school in the US to advise them that they are obliged not to discriminate against trans people.
However, that hasn’t gone down well with hard-right Republicans – with GOP politicians in Oklahoma attempting to impeach Obama.
But Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton was not the only one to file a lawsuit in federal court against the Obama administration.
Officials in twelve other states asked a federal judge to halt the directive as students prepare to go back to school.
But US District Judge Reed O’Connor in Fort Worth heard arguments that the Administration’s directive was unconstitutional but so far has not made a ruling.
While the Administration has not explicitly suggested school districts could lose federal funding if they do not comply, it has also not ruled out the possibility.
Attorneys for the Obama Administration argued that the directive was not unconstitutional and that school districts had no reason to believe that they shouldn’t adhere to it.
The US Supreme Court surprised earlier this month ruled that a school can temporarily block a trans student from using male bathroom facilities during a legal battle over trans rights.
Five out of eight justices on the Supreme Court voted to stay the ruling from the US District Court in Norfolk, Virginia, which was made in June.
The Virginia court in June ruled that Grimm must be able to use the men’s facilities in his Virginia Gloucester County high school.
