Republican-Led States Sue Biden Administration Over New Transgender Protections; 18 States Fight Federal Trans Agenda on Pronouns, Bathrooms

Republican-Led States Sue Biden Administration Over New Transgender Protections:

Eighteen Republican-led states are suing the Biden administration’s Equal Employment Opportunity Commission over the federal agency’s new sexual-harassment guidance that enforces broad legal protections for transgender workers.

The federal lawsuit, filed on Monday by Tennessee attorney general Jonathan Skrmetti, argues that the EEOC is overstepping its constitutional limits by unlawfully placing gender identity under the purview of Title VII, which prohibits employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, and national origin.

The states agree with the 2020 Supreme Court ruling, Bostock v. Clayton County, that firing employees because they are transgender or gay constitutes sex-based discrimination. The plaintiffs, however, argue that the decision does not weigh on the accommodations that the EEOC required employers to abide by last month.

On April 29, the commission updated its workplace-harassment guidance for the first time in nearly 25 years, requiring employers to use transgender workers’ preferred pronouns and allowing them to use bathrooms corresponding with their gender identity. Employers may be held liable if they, their employees, or the customers do not follow the new policy and its provisions.

The multistate coalition acknowledges that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 ensures equal opportunity for women in the workplace, but contends that the EEOC lacks the power to mandate that employers provide accommodations to transgender workers.

“EEOC has no authority to resolve these highly controversial and localized issues, which are properly reserved for Congress and the states,” the 46-page lawsuit states. —>READ MORE HERE

18 States Fight Federal Trans Agenda on Pronouns, Bathrooms:

In response to new federal rules on pronouns and bathrooms based on gender identity, 18 state attorneys general are suing the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

The lawsuit, led by Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti, a Republican, was filed Monday in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee.

“This end-run around our constitutional institutions misuses federal power to eliminate women’s private spaces and punish the use of biologically accurate pronouns, all at the expense of Tennessee employers,” Skrmetti said in a public statement.

The Daily Signal first reported last month that the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission published guidance determining that an employer would be guilty of harassment for requiring someone to use a restroom that comports with his or her biological sex, or for referring to someone by a personal pronoun that the person doesn’t want used.

The guidance, which the EEOC adopted on a party-line vote of 3-2, would determine how the commission would handle an employee complaint on the matter and also could affect other employee litigation as the formal federal policy.

EEOC has 2,331 employees, according to its 2023 annual report.

Joining Tennessee in the lawsuit are Republican attorneys general from the states of Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah, Virginia, and West Virginia.

“In America, the Constitution gives the power to make laws to the people’s elected representatives, not to unaccountable commissioners, and this EEOC guidance is an attack on our constitutional separation of powers,” Skrmetti, Tennessee’s attorney general, said. “When, as here, a federal agency engages in government over the people instead of government by the people, it undermines the legitimacy of our laws and alienates Americans from our legal system.”

The EEOC issued new sexual harassment guidance that extends Title VII’s prohibition of sex-based discrimination to cover gender identity. Title VII forbids employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, and national origin. It applies to any employer, public or private, with more than 15 employees. —>READ MORE HERE

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