By Evie Blad
A Texas federal judge issued a nationwide order late Sunday, temporarily halting application of the Obama administration’s guidance on transgender students while a 13-state legal challenge on the issue, led by Texas, is decided.
The case is one of a number of legal challenges related to the May guidance, in which the U.S. Departments of Education and Justice said that, under Title IX, public schools must allow transgender students to use single-sex restrooms and locker rooms that align with their gender identity, even if it differs from their sex at birth. A related case, brought by a transgender Virginia student, may be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court.
U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor sided with Texas and 12 other state plaintiffs in his order for a temporary injunction, which bars the federal agencies from enforcing the guidance and from from initiating civil rights investigations in schools based on their interpretation that Title IX’s discrimination protections apply to gender identity until he makes final judgment on the case.