The department withdrew a request on Friday that a federal court limit an injunction that has halted enforcement of existing civil rights laws to provide protections for transgender people. An independent federal agency, however, continued to press ahead in its pro-transgender legal position in another case.
The Justice Department took a step back Friday from its prior position of advancing transgender peoples rights under existing civil rights laws.
On just the second day of Attorney General Jeff Sessions tenure at the helm of the Justice Department, the federal government filed a notice in the lawsuit Texas and other states had brought against the Obama administrations pro-transgender policies.
The moves taken in the filing a joint filing made with the states suggest that the federal governments position on the pending legal questions surrounding transgender peoples rights could be changing soon. At the least, it suggests the new administration is pulling back while it determines the position it will be taking in the case.
The Justice Department announced in the short filing that it was withdrawing its request that the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit limit a lower courts nationwide injunction of the pro-transgender policies to instead cover only those states that had brought the litigation.
Then, in a joint request with the states challenging the policy, the states and the Justice Department both requested that the oral arguments on that issue be removed from the courts calendar.
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The argument, advanced by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and later by the Justice Department and other federal agencies, is that existing civil rights law bans on sex discrimination should be read to include a ban on anti-transgender discrimination because it is a type of sex discrimination.
During the presidential campaign, President Trump suggested he supported the rights of transgender people to use the restroom that matches their gender identity, but he later clarified that he believed the Obama administration had gone too far by trying to create a national policy. He said the decisions should be left to state and local governments.
Nonetheless, despite the Justice Department move, the EEOC an independent federal agency appeared to be keeping its fight for the pro-transgender interpretation of the law proceeding in court.
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Filing by DoJ: https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/3458977/5th-Circuit-Texas-v-US.pdf
Source and full article: www.buzzfeed.com/chrisgeidner/justi...ort-to-protect?utm_term=.wnDEjGqb0#.cd2PVA18p
The Justice Department took a step back Friday from its prior position of advancing transgender peoples rights under existing civil rights laws.
On just the second day of Attorney General Jeff Sessions tenure at the helm of the Justice Department, the federal government filed a notice in the lawsuit Texas and other states had brought against the Obama administrations pro-transgender policies.
The moves taken in the filing a joint filing made with the states suggest that the federal governments position on the pending legal questions surrounding transgender peoples rights could be changing soon. At the least, it suggests the new administration is pulling back while it determines the position it will be taking in the case.
The Justice Department announced in the short filing that it was withdrawing its request that the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit limit a lower courts nationwide injunction of the pro-transgender policies to instead cover only those states that had brought the litigation.
Then, in a joint request with the states challenging the policy, the states and the Justice Department both requested that the oral arguments on that issue be removed from the courts calendar.
..........
The argument, advanced by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and later by the Justice Department and other federal agencies, is that existing civil rights law bans on sex discrimination should be read to include a ban on anti-transgender discrimination because it is a type of sex discrimination.
During the presidential campaign, President Trump suggested he supported the rights of transgender people to use the restroom that matches their gender identity, but he later clarified that he believed the Obama administration had gone too far by trying to create a national policy. He said the decisions should be left to state and local governments.
Nonetheless, despite the Justice Department move, the EEOC an independent federal agency appeared to be keeping its fight for the pro-transgender interpretation of the law proceeding in court.
---------------
Filing by DoJ: https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/3458977/5th-Circuit-Texas-v-US.pdf
Source and full article: www.buzzfeed.com/chrisgeidner/justi...ort-to-protect?utm_term=.wnDEjGqb0#.cd2PVA18p
