NC Family Staff | July 12, 2016 | SHARE: 
Ten more states have joined the legal fight against the Obama Administration’s “guidance” letter that would force all public schools to allow students to use the bathrooms, locker rooms, and showers that correspond to their “gender identity” as opposed to their biological sex. There are now 24 states, including North Carolina, that are legally challenging the Obama administration’s radical bathroom agenda.
The ten additional states filed a lawsuit in response to a document issued by the U.S. Departments of Education and Justice on May 13 to public schools, colleges, and universities across the nation, stating that they must allow students to use the bathrooms, locker rooms, showers, and dormitories that correspond to their “gender identity” or risk losing federal education tax dollars. This means that female students could be forced to share bathrooms, locker rooms, and other facilities with male students who self-identify as female. It would also allow boys to participate on girls’ sports teams. In response, on May 25, eleven states (later joined by two additional states) sued the Obama Administration. Now ten more states have filed a separate but similar lawsuit.
Last Friday, Nebraska Attorney General Doug Peterson announced that Nebraska along with 9 other states “would be challenging the U.S. Department of Education and the U.S. Department of Justice’s recent mandate.” The complaint states: “Plaintiffs stand united behind the constitutional principle that it is the duty of Congress to legislate, while it is the duty of the Executive Branch, including its various federal agencies, to administer and enforce the laws that Congress enacts. Defendants lack authority to amend those laws by executive fiat and to threaten Plaintiffs and their subdivisions with the loss of billions of dollars in federal education funding if Plaintiffs continue to abide by the laws Congress actually passed.” Arkansas, Kansas, Michigan, Montana, North Dakota, Ohio, South Carolina, South Dakota, and Wyoming joined Nebraska in the lawsuit.
This most recent lawsuit and the one filed on May 25 are separate from the legal battle between North Carolina and the Obama Administration. In North Carolina, three separate lawsuits have been filed—one by Governor Pat McCrory,one by NC House Speaker Tim Moore and NC Senate Leader Phil Berger, and one by a group of public school students and parents—which are all challenging the Obama Administration’s interpretation of the word “sex” in federal laws and the potential for that interpretation to be used to withhold federal education funding from the state.
Many legal experts believe that all of these legal battles will be consolidated and will ultimately be decided by the U.S. Supreme Court. NC Family will continue to monitor the situation closely and keep you informed.
