Why would anyone follow this guy?
Ten additional states are suing the Obama administration to stop a directive that requires schools to allow transgender students to use bathrooms aligned with their gender identity under the threat of losing federal funding, bringing the total number of states challenging the guidance to 21.
Nebraska Attorney General Doug Peterson announced the lawsuit, filed in federal court in Nebraska, on Friday afternoon. The state is joined by nine others: Arkansas, Kansas, Michigan, Montana, North Dakota, Ohio, South Carolina, South Dakota and Wyoming.
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Friday’s lawsuit is part of a recent spate of litigation about the issue. There are now legal challenges to the Obama administration’s directive pending in at least four federal appellate circuits, setting up the possibility that courts could diverge on the issue and lead the U.S. Supreme Court to weigh in.
Stanford law professor Jeffrey Fisher, co-director of the school’s Supreme Court Litigation Clinic, said the court is more likely to take up an issue if federal appellate courts come to different legal conclusions. But he said the high court often waits until lawsuits have the chance to percolate through the legal system so it has the benefit of the input from other jurisdictions.
“The fact that a particular issue is being litigated in several states across the country weighs in favor” of the Supreme Court stepping in, Fisher said.
The Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit, based in Richmond, Va., is the highest court to issue a ruling on the matter. In April, the court sided with a transgender student suing a Virginia school board for banning him from the boys’ bathroom, saying his lawsuit challenging that policy could move forward in a lower court. In its ruling, the appeals court deferred to the Obama administration’s position that Title IX protects the rights of transgender students to use bathrooms in accordance with their gender identity.
See here and here for the background. Before we get as far as appellate courts possibly issuing conflicting opinions, Ken Paxton is trying to get a nationwide injunction halting the directive before school starts in Texas on August 22. This is going to be the never-ending Summer of Potties, whether we like it or not.