Texas on Wednesday filed a lawsuit
challenging a directive by the Obama administration advising schools
to allow transgender students to use the bathroom of their choice.
At a
press conference to announce the lawsuit, Texas Attorney General
Ken Paxton accused President Barack Obama of attempting to skirt
Congress on the issue and said that 10 additional states had joined
the lawsuit.
Paxton said that Texas filed the
lawsuit to protect the Harrold Independent School District and its
newly adopted policy requiring students to use bathrooms that match
their gender at birth.
Paxton said that the school district's
policy “puts the safety of their students first.”
The policy “means that the district
is in the crosshairs of the Obama administration, which claims it
will punish anyone that doesn't comply with their orders,” said
Paxton.
The lawsuit argues that the
administration's guidance “has no basis in law” and could cause
“seismic changes in the operations of the nation's school
districts.”
Joining Texas in the lawsuit are
Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Utah, West Virginia
and Wisconsin, as well as Maine Governor Paul LePage, a Republican.