Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is fighting the Obama Administration’s executive dictate that Texas schools must let transgender students, or those who identify with the other sex on a given day, to use the bathroom of the opposite sex. Paxton went to court on Friday and led a 13-state coalition and argued for a preliminary injunction to stop the federal government overreach.
As reported by Breitbart Texas, Paxton filed a lawsuit against President Obama and his administration soon after the federal government issued their directive. He vows a fight on Obama’s transgender bathroom policy for Texas schools. Twelve states have since joined the Lone Star State in battling the federal government.
The federal lawsuit brought by Paxton sues the U.S. Department of Education, the U.S. Department of Justice, and other federal agencies and officials. It cites the federal command that Texas public schools open restrooms and locker rooms to both sexes. The State of Texas is defending a local school district whose school policies are in conflict with the Obama Administration directive – the Harrold Independent School District. Harrold, Texas, is located in Wilbarger County and borders the state of Oklahoma.
On May 13, the Department of Education (DOE) Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights, and the Department of Justice (DOJ) Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights, sent a “Dear Colleague Letter on Transgender Students” to state and local agencies that receive federal financial assistance from the DOE. The policy allows students to use bathroom and other facilities that they at the moment “gender identify” with. The head of the Office of Civil Rights in the DOE thus joined with the White House legal arm, the DOJ, and sent a letter which they represented should serve as “significant guidance” to school districts.
The federal court heard arguments on the Texas-led coalition’s request for a preliminary injunction to prevent the federal government from imposing its transgender and gender identity fluid directive on local schools and employers. The court considered the parties’ arguments and could possibly issue a ruling in August.
“We are confident that the Court will rule against the Obama Administration’s latest illegal federal overreach. This President is attempting to rewrite the laws that were enacted by the elected representatives of the people, and is using the threat of losing federal funding to get schools to conform; that cannot be allowed to continue. The Obama Administration’s directive unlawfully invades areas that are better left to local schools and parents to balance the needs of students, including their safety, privacy and dignity,” General Paxton said.
As reported by Breitbart Texas, school officials in Texas have had various reactions to the Obama Administration’s directive. Obama’s crusade to push fluid “gender identity” in schools caused Port Neches-Groves ISD Superintendent Dr. Rodney Cavness to respond, “I got news for President Barack Obama. He ain’t my president and he can’t tell me what to do. That letter is going straight to the paper shredder.” He added that the President “is destroying the very fiber of this country. He is not a leader. He is a failure.”
A Texas mother says she will fight for the right of her transgender four-year-old to use the bathroom of choice in public schools. She says its a matter of life and death. As reported by Breitbart Texas, Kimberly Shappley says her son started saying by the age of three, “I’m a girl, you know I’m a girl.”
Attorney General Paxton joined parents on May 16 to protest Fort Worth ISD Superintendent Dr. Kent Paredes Schribner’s newly-announced student transgender policy, as reported by Breitbart Texas. The policy, like the federal government’s mandate, allows students of the opposite sex to use facilities that they “gender identify” with at the moment.
Lana Shadwick is a contributing writer and legal analyst for Breitbart Texas. She has served as a prosecutor and associate judge in Texas. Follow her on Twitter @LanaShadwick2.