Texas AG Ken Paxton Tries to Block Obama Administration from Enforcing Nondiscrimination Laws

A federal district judge in Texas will hold a hearing Friday to determine whether he should enter a nationwide injunction blocking the Obama administration from protecting transgender people against discrimination.Â

Republican Texas Attorney General Ken PaxtonÂ (photo) has filed a lawsuit on behalf of 13 states that seeks to prevent the administration from implementing its interpretation of two federal laws that prohibit discrimination based on sex. The administration maintains â€” and numerous federal courts have held â€” that Title VII and Title IX also cover transÂ people.Â

However, Paxton’s office alleges the administration wants to turn schools and workplaces “into laboratories for a massive social experiment” and is “running roughshod over commonsense policies protecting children and basic privacy rights.” In requesting a nationwide preliminary injunction, Paxton’s office citedÂ concerns aboutÂ â€œthe nature of the nudityâ€ trans people may display, and the â€œbodily functions they may perform in intimate areas.â€Â

The lawsuit was filed in response to guidance issued byÂ the U.S. Education and Justice departments in May, saying public schools risk losing federal funding if they don’t allow trans students to use restrooms based on their gender identity. But the Obama administration maintains the guidance isn’t legally binding, and has questioned whether Paxton’s office has standing to challenge it, given that the case doesn’t involve any specific controversy over trans restroom access in Texas.Â

“Indeed, plaintiffs have identified no enforcement action threatened or taken against them as a result of defendantsâ€™ interpretations, nor have they established that the guidance documents have any binding legal effect,” the federal government wrote in opposition to Paxton’s request for a preliminary injunction. “Instead, they have alleged no more than an abstract disagreement with the agenciesâ€™ interpretation of the law. … If the defendant agencies seek to apply this interpretation to plaintiffs in a future enforcement proceeding, plaintiffs will have ample opportunity to raise the arguments that they prematurely seek to assert in this case.”Â

In the wake of the guidance, Paxton’s office drafted a model policy restricting trans restroom access, then shopped it to multiple Texas school districts. The policy was eventually adopted by the tiny Harrold district, on the Oklahoma border near Wichita Falls, which is the lead plaintiff in the case. Until now, district was best known as the first to allow teachers to carry guns, and its superintendent, David Thweatt, has said he doesn’t think trans people exist.Â

LGBT advocates say Paxton deliberately filed the case in the region presided over by U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor, who last year issued a horrific ruling â€” also in response to a lawsuit from the AG’s office â€” blocking gay workers from taking unpaid leave to care for their sick partners. Ken Upton, senior counsel for Lambda Legal, called Paxton’s lawsuit over the administration’sÂ guidance on trans students “a big circus, mostly for political gain.” Â

“I guess he doesnâ€™t have anything else to do. He must not have any person problems â€” oh wait, apparently he does,” Upton said, alluding to the fact that Paxton is currently facing first-degree felony charges for alleged securities fraud. “His claim to fame is going to be, ‘How many ways can I get a dig in at the federal government?'”Â

Â

Image viaÂ Facebook