Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson has reportedly advised public schools across the nation to ignore the new directive on transgender bathroom use issued by the Obama administration.
In a letter issued Friday morning by the Departments of Education and Justice, the White House urged all U.S. public schools funded by taxpayer dollars to permit students to use the bathroom of their choice based on their gender identity.
The administration billed the directive as an effort to “ensure that all students, including transgender students, can attend school in an environment free from discrimination based on sex.”
Hutchinson, meanwhile, accused the president of “social engineering” and suggested that schools should continue to use common sense as they work to address situations involving transgender students.
Elsewhere in the country, conservative lawmakers echoed Hutchinson’s concerns.
“This goes against the values of so many people,” Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick told reporters on Friday. “This has everything to do with keeping the federal government out of local issues.”
Patrick added that the Lone Star State would “not yield to blackmail from the president of the United States.”
Texas Sen. John Cornyn accused Obama of meddling, claiming “his job is not to intervene in state and local affairs under our constitutional scheme.”
“So frankly I think his involvement in this is unwelcomed,” Cornyn said, according to Fox News.
“This ought to be a choice made by local officials at the local level held accountable by their own voters.”
Obama’s directive on transgender bathroom use comes just days after the North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory responded to a civil rights lawsuit filed by the Justice Department over transgender rights in the Tar Heel State with a lawsuit of his own, accusing the administration of “baseless and blatant overreach.”
“This is an attempt to unilaterally rewrite long-established federal civil rights laws in a manner that is wholly inconsistent with the intent of Congress and disregards decades of statutory interpretation by the Courts,” read McCrory’s suit against the DOJ.
