Attorney General Ken Paxton today declared victory in his fight to uphold school rights in Texas and across the nation. After the federal government rescinded its directive that schools nationwide must mix boys and girls in intimate areas, and the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) agreed to drop its appeal of a nationwide injunction, Attorney General Paxton’s office withdrew its 13-state lawsuit over former President Obama’s school intimate spaces directive.
“We are proud to have led the 13-state coalition that successfully fought back against the Obama administration’s illegal federal overreach into the intimate spaces within our nation’s schools and workplaces,” Attorney General Paxton said. “The administration’s directive was not just an unwarranted invasion of the privacy of countless students and employees, but it was an illegal usurpation of the authority of state and local officials. The Tenth Amendment guarantees that the federal bureaucracy does not have the authority to upend local policy at whim, especially when federal actors contravene the plain language of Congress. Today’s action is a huge victory that allows states to be free to enact statutes of their choosing.”
Last week, President Trump rescinded the Obama administration’s directive regarding intimate places within schools, including locker rooms, showers and bathrooms. The action came six months after a district court judge sided with Attorney General Paxton and issued a nationwide injunction prohibiting the Obama administration from enforcing its intimate space directives.