In a federal lawsuit filed by Attorney General Herbert H. Slatery III and 19 other states’ attorneys general, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee has enjoined the U.S. Department of Education and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission from enforcing new, expansive guidance on federal anti-discrimination laws. The now-enjoined guidance attempted to require schools to allow biological males to compete on girls’ sports teams, to prohibit sex-separated showers and locker rooms, and to compel individuals to use their own preferred pronouns.
The ruling was by Judge Charles E.
Atchley, who hears cases in Chattanooga.
AG Slatery said, “The District Court rightly recognized the federal government put Tennessee and other states in an impossible situation: choose between the threat of legal consequences including the withholding of federal funding- or altering our state laws to comply. Keep in mind these new, transformative rules were made without you- without your elected leaders in Congress having a say, which is what the law requires.
“We are thankful the Court put a stop to it, maintained the status quo as the lawsuit proceeds, and reminded the federal government it cannot direct it’s agencies to rewrite the law.”
The following states joined Tennessee in the lawsuit: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, and West Virginia.
To read the District Court’s ruling, click here: https://www.tn.gov/content/dam/tn/attorneygeneral/documents/pr/2022/pr22-23-order.pdf