Federal judge largely upholds ban on Obama transgender school bathroom policy News
Federal judge largely upholds ban on Obama transgender school bathroom policy

A federal judge on Tuesday rejected [order, PDF] the Obama administration’s request to narrow an injunction banning the enforcement of an Education Department policy [press release] requiring public schools to allow transgender students to use bathrooms and locker rooms that correspond to the student’s gender. Judge Reed O’Connor of the US District Court for the Northern District of Texas [official website] refused [Politico report] to allow the Department of Education [official website] to enforce their policy for public schools across the nation in an order on Tuesday but did make some changes to his initial ruling granting an injunction [JURIST report] from August. This occurred after 13 states brought suit against the policy [Bloomberg report]. The Department of Justice [official website] had asked that O’Connor maintain the injunction only in the 13 states that filed suit, but O’Connor cited the need for a “uniform application of national standards in education and workplace policy” as his reasoning for maintaining a nationwide injunction. O’Connor is allowing the government to continue to defend their policy in other cases where they are being sued and to continue to pursue policy enforcement in “litigation not substantially developed” before his August ruling. O’Connor also clarified that this ruling only applied to “intimate facilities” such as locker rooms and bathrooms. The Obama administration is expected to appeal the decision to the US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.

Transgender access to public restrooms has been a controversial topic and has created a wave of legislative and judicial action. In August the US Supreme Court blocked [JURIST report] a lower court ruling allowing a transgender student who identifies as male to use the boy’s restroom at school. In July US Secretary of Defense Ash Carter announced a new policy that allows transgender individuals to serve openly in the military [JURIST report], effective immediately. In May Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau introduced legislation that would ban transgender discrimination [JURIST report], including it within Canada’s hate crime laws.

THIS DAY @ LAW

Thomas Becket, former Chancellor of England, murdered by Henry II's knights

On December 29, 1170, Archbishop Thomas Becket, former Chancellor of England, was murdered in Canterbury Cathedral by knights acting in the name of Henry II.

Becket and Henry had been entangled in a power struggle over, among other things, criminal jurisdiction over clergy. Read a contemporary account of the murder of Thomas Becket.

Texas attains US statehood

On December 29, 1845, Texas became the twenty-eighth state to join the United States of America when US President James K. Polk signed the Ordinance of Annexation. Texas had a complicated path to statehood because it had formerly been part of Mexico and then an independent republic. The US Congress passed the Annexation of the Republic of Texas Joint Resolution on March 1, 1845. Voters in Texas then approved the Ordinance of Annexation in October, before it was approved by the US Congress and signed into law by President Polk on this day in 1845. The US Supreme Court later ruled in Texas v. White that, despite its unique path to statehood, Texas did not have the right to secede from the union.