POSTED BY: CINCINNATUS
Texas is again taking the helm in bucking the Obama administration, this time on the administration’s transgender bathroom policy.
Texas is leading 10 other states in suing the administration to block its social -engineering directive that public schools allow transgender students to use the bathroom that fits what gender they believe they are.
The lawsuit accuses President Barack Hussein Obama of rewriting existing sex-discrimination laws by “administrative fiat,” saying the president was exceeding his constitutional powers by tampering with an issue that should be left to Congress or the states. It would be fair to say Congress never envisioned the transgender issue when passing sex-discrimination legislation.
“Defendants have conspired to turn workplace 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 stated.
Nine of the 11 states are led by Republican governors.
The state of Texas is the lead plaintiff and was joined by Alabama, Wisconsin, West Virginia, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Utah and Georgia, plus the Arizona Department of Education and the governor of Maine.
School districts from Texas and Arizona also joined the suit, which names the U.S. government and other federal agencies and officials as defendants.
Amid a national debate on transgender rights, Obama’s administration on May 13 told U.S. public schools that transgender students must be allowed to use the bathroom of their choice, upsetting Republicans and raising the likelihood of fights over federal funding and legal authority, Reuters reported.
According to Reuters via MSN:
Alison Gill, the vice chair of the Trans United Fund, a political advocacy group, said the states’ challenge did not reflect the position of most school boards and administrators, who have come out in favor of the administration’s order.
“This action puts students at risk for the sake of politics,” Gill said.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich said, “President Obama has no business setting locker room and restroom policies for our schools.”
“School policies should be determined by individual states, educators and parents – not dictated by a presidential decree,” added West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey.
Since Obama, a Democrat, took office in January 2009, Texas, the most populous Republican-controlled state, has filed suit against his administration more than three dozen times. Texas also is the lead state in the high-profile lawsuit against Obama’s execution action to protect millions of illegal immigrants from deportation and provide them work permits that the Supreme Court is due to rule on by the end of June.
That suit accused Obama of exceeding his presidential powers at the expense of the Republican-led U.S. Congress.
Texas also has sued the federal government on issues including U.S. Environmental Protection Agency regulations, taxes under Obama’s signature healthcare law, and blocking the resettlement of Syrian refugees in the state.[b][/b][face=Arial][/face][color=blue][/color] |
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