Ten states are suing the Obama administration over a directive requiring public schools to allow transgender students to use the bathroom facility that corresponds with their gender identity.
The lawsuit includes Arkansas, Kansas, Michigan, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Carolina, South Dakota and Wyoming.
The lawsuit was filed Friday in federal court in Nebraska, according to Nebraska Attorney General Doug Peterson.
Peterson said the Education and Justice departments have gone around established and existing laws in creating the directive.
The federal government’s directive “supersedes local school districts’ authority to address student issues on a individualized, professional and private basis,” Peterson’s press release said.
The Obama administrative directive is the subject of another lawsuit as well. In May, 11 states sued the federal government over the directive, saying it “has no basis in law.”
Status of Transgender “Bathroom Bill” Legislation InsideGov
All of the lawsuits and the federal directive come in the wake of a North Carolina law passed earlier this year, the first of its kind in the nation. That controversial measure, dubbed House Bill 2, mandates that transgender people use the bathroom facility that corresponds with the gender on their birth certificate.
States are worried that federal money will be withheld from them if they do not comply with the federal directive. The Justice Department has said the North Carolina law violates the federal Civil Rights Act, as well as Title IX.
