A multi-state lawsuit over Obama-era guidance on the rights of transgender students will soon be coming to an end, the U.S. Department of Justice said in a court filing Thursday.
That guidance, which has since been rescinded by the Trump administration, put schools on notice that federal officials would find them in violation of Title IX if they failed to respect transgender students’ gender identities in decisions like which restrooms and locker rooms they use and what gender to use on documents.
Texas led a group of states and two school districts in a federal lawsuit challenging the guidance as federal overreach. That led a federal judge to place the guidance on hold last year while he considered the case, a move initially challenged by the Obama administration’s Justice Department.
Now under the authority of Attorney General Jeff Sessions, the Trump-era Justice Department asked the court Thursday to dismiss the appeal with the understanding that the plaintiffs would in turn drop their lawsuit.
There are still at least five other pending lawsuits in federal courts related to transgender student rights, including the case of Gavin Grimm, a transgender Virginia boy whose school restroom access will be at the center of U.S. Supreme Court oral arguments March 28.
Further reading on transgender students:
- Transgender Sister of Trump Inauguration Singer Gets Favorable Ruling in Court
- Both Sides Urge Supreme Court to Decide Transgender Case Despite Trump Move
- Attention Turns to Courts in Battle Over Transgender-Student Rights
- Supreme Court Asks Parties’ Views on Trump Shift in Transgender Policy
- Trump Administration Rescinds Transgender-Student Guidance
- Many Schools Already Accommodate Transgender Students
- Obama Admin. to Schools: No Restrictions on Transgender Restroom Access