A federal judge in Texas declined to limit his earlier ruling placing a nationwide injunction on the Obama administration's mandate that public schools allow transgender students to use bathrooms and locker rooms consistent with their gender identity. Josh Gerstein writes:
In an order issued late Tuesday, U.S. District Court Judge Reed O'Connor made some changes to the ruling he issued in August at the request of 13 states opposed to the policy, but he left the Education Department unable to bring new cases enforcing transgender students' access to access to what he termed "intimate facilities" across the nation.
Justice Department lawyers had asked O'Connor to limit the injunction's effect to the 13 states who brought the suit, filed in federal court in Wichita Falls, Texas, about 140 miles northwest of Dallas. However, the judge maintained he had the legal authority to halt the policy nationwide.
One thing O'Connor did do was limit the application of his ruling to "intimate facilities," leaving open the possibility of enforcing prohibitions on other forms of discrimination against transgender students.
The Justice Department will likely appeal the ruling to the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals.