11 States Drop Lawsuit After Trump Rescinds Transgender Student Directive

The 11 states suing to stop the Obama administration’s directive expanding transgender student rights agreed to drop their lawsuit against the move following the Trump administration’s move to rescind the order.

The states, led by Texas, sued in May, arguing that the Obama administration had overstepped its authority when it directed the nation’s public schools to allow transgender students to use bathrooms that align with their gender identity, regardless of the sex on their birth certificate. The Obama administration argued that barring students from bathrooms that match their gender identity is a violation of Title IX, the federal law that prohibits sex discrimination in schools.

Texas was joined in the lawsuit by Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Utah, West Virginia and Wisconsin, as well as the Arizona Department of Education, Maine Gov. Paul LePage (R) and two school districts. Ten other states, led by Nebraska, also sued to challenge the directive in a separate lawsuit.

A federal judge in August issued a stay on the directive, barring it from being implemented while the case continued. The Justice Department appealed the stay, arguing that the stay should only apply to the 11 states challenging the directive.

The Trump administration last week rescinded the directive, leaving it up to states and school boards to decide how to accommodate transgender students. The Justice Department, in a court filing Thursday, moved to drop its appeal of the stay and wrote that the states had agreed to drop the lawsuit.

Several other lawsuits involving questions about the rights of transgender students are working their way through the courts. The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear oral arguments later this month in the case of a Virginia teen who sued his school board after it barred him from the boys bathroom.

Source: www.chicagotribune.com www.chicagotribune.com

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