Obama's transgender bathroom mandate blocked by federal judge

Chiqui Guyjoco Tuesday, August 23, 2016

A federal judge in Texas ruled Sunday to block the use of transgender bathroom policy mandated by no less than the U.S. President Barack Obama.

A gender-neutral bathroom is seen at the University of California, Irvine in Irvine, California | Reuters/Lucy Nicholson

U.S. District Judge Reed O'Connor signed a temporary injunction on Obama's extension of Title IX law on public schools that it "is not ambiguous" about sex as "the biological and anatomical differences between male and female students as determined at their birth."

The judge also determined that the administration "failed to comply" when it issued the policy without providing "notice and comment requirements."

"This case presents the difficult issue of balancing the protection of students' rights and that of personal privacy ... while ensuring that no student is unnecessarily marginalized while attending school," wrote O'Connor.

Obama issued the directive in May that all American public schools should allow transgender students to use the bathroom and changing facilities according to the students' gender identification and not their biological sex.

At least 13 states and agencies filed a lawsuit to challenge the policy as unconstitutional. The 13 states included Alabama, Arizona, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, West Virginia and Wisconsin.

"This president is attempting to rewrite the laws enacted by the elected representatives of the people and is threating to take away federal funding from schools to force them to conform," the Associated Press quoted Republican Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton as saying.

O'Connor also said that the ruling would apply to all states.

While the Justice Department expressed disappointment with the ruling, Josh Block, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union, rejected the order as applicable nationwide.

"It's Wichita Falls. It doesn't have jurisdiction over the entire country," said Block.

The U.S. Supreme Court also temporarily blocked earlier this month a previous court order on Virginia's Gloucester High School that sided in favor of the school's transgender female student, 17-year-old Gavin Grimm.

Obama extended the transgender directive on federal buildings as announced by the General Services Administration's (GSA) Thursday on the Federal Register website.