Thirteen states, led by Texas, are expected to drop a suit they filed against the Obama administration last year after it released a directive saying that Title IX protects against gender-identity discrimination. | Getty | Getty 13 states, DOJ reach settlement in litigation over transgender student rights

The state of Texas and the Justice Department appear to have reached a settlement of a multi-state federal lawsuit over transgender student rights, according to a new filing with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit.

Thirteen states, led by Texas, are expected to drop a suit they filed against the Obama administration last year after it released a directive saying that Title IX — a federal law that prohibits sex-based discrimination in federally funded education programs — protects against gender-identity discrimination. Former President Barack Obama’s Education and Justice departments told schools they must allow transgender students to use bathrooms and locker rooms consistent with their gender identities, and threatened withdrawal of education funds for those that did not comply with the non-binding guidance. The directive prompted nearly half of the states to sue.


A Texas judge last year placed a nationwide ban on the Obama directive, halting enforcement and prompting Obama’s Justice Department to ask for the ban to be limited to just the 13 states involved in the lawsuit. But President Donald Trump’s Justice Department recently dropped the Obama request to limit the ban, suggesting that a settlement was in the works.

And last week the Trump administration moved to rescind Obama’s directive entirely — and without it, the states and DOJ have nothing to fight about. In the filing Thursday, the Justice Department said it's withdrawing the appeal of the nationwide ban, and the states indicated they'll soon withdraw their suit.

But the settlement does not affect other litigation related to transgender student rights, such as a case that is due for oral arguments before the Supreme Court later this month involving Gavin Grimm, a transgender Virginia student who is suing his school district to be able to use a bathroom consistent with his gender identity. It also would not affect a federal lawsuit in North Carolina over that state’s so-called bathroom bill.

DOJ declined to comment beyond today's filing. The Texas attorney general’s office couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.