Texas Joins 10-State Lawsuit Against Obama Over Transgender Bathroom Use

AUSTIN, TX -- Texas joined 10 other states on Wednesday in suing the Obama administration, as conservative lawmakers defy the federal government's call to allow transgender individuals to use public bathrooms corresponding to their gender identities.

Two weeks ago, the Obama administration issued transgender policy guidelines to school districts, which sparked outrage among GOP lawmakers controlling state government. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick was dispatched to make the national media rounds in assailing the Obama administration's stance with television news personalities.

In interviews, Patrick strongly inferred that allowing transgender women into bathrooms opens the door -- literally and figuratively -- to sexual assaults of women and girls.

Gov. Greg Abbott got into the act, belittling the Obama administration's argument that barring transgender people from using bathrooms matching their gender identities in effect violates their civil rights. In response, Abbott tweeted: "JFK wanted to send a man to the moon. Obama wants to send a man to the women's restroom."

After news of the lawsuit over bathroom news broke, Abbott again issued another statement. Like the previous one, the gubernatorial missive is short on substantive arguments on the finer points of his opposition and instead assails the President of the United States generally.

“The Obama administration has routinely trampled on the United States Constitution, and this latest executive action is yet another example of the administration’s disregard for the rule of law," Abbott said in a prepared statement released Wednesday afternoon. "The President continues to violate the Constitution by trying to re-write laws as if he were a king."

Abbott praised his attorney general, Ken Paxton, for having filed the lawsuit seeking to ban transgender people from using the bathrooms of their choice.

"The states serve as the last line of defense against an unlawfully expansive federal government, and I applaud Attorney General Paxton for fighting against the President’s attempt to rule by executive fiat.”

By last Wednesday afternoon, Paxton issued his own statement on the matter.

“Our local schools are now in the crosshairs of the Obama Administration, which maintains it will punish those schools who do not comply with its orders," Paxton said in a prepared statement. "These schools are facing the potential loss of school funding for simply following common sense policies that protect their students.”

The potential funding loss he referenced has to do with federal funding that has historically been contingent on adherence to the Civil Rights Act and Title IX, both safeguards protecting against discrimination based on sex.

In issuing the federal guidelines for compliance, the U.S. Justice Department didn't outright threaten to cut off federal funds to schools, but did reiterate both the departments of Education and Justice "...treat a student's gender identity as the student's sex for purposes of Title IX."

But prior to today's lawsuit, GOP lawmakers here in Texas took that as a thinly veiled threat.

"He says he's going to withhold funding if schools do not follow the policy," Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick told reporters in Austin after the federal guidelines were issued. "Well, in Texas, he can keep his 30 pieces of silver; we will not yield to blackmail from the president of the United States."

Like Abbott, Paxton also employed allusions to a monarchy under the Obama administration: "This represents just the latest example of the current administration’s attempts to accomplish by executive fiat what they couldn’t accomplish through the democratic process in Congress," Paxton said. "By forcing through his policies by executive action, President Obama excluded the voice of the people. We stand today to ensure those voices are heard.”

To that end, Paxton said his state is joined in the lawsuit by Alabama, Arizona, Georgia, Louisiana, Maine, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Utah, West Virginia and Wisconsin. Click here to read the full lawsuit.

To political observers, this latest Texas-led lawsuit comes as no surprise. Gov. Greg Abbott has, in the past, spurred on past lawsuits against the federal governments on issues ideologically opposed to those of the Obama administration -- from Obama-led immigration reform efforts to issues related to pollution emissions.

Sometimes, it seems the default move for Texas when disagreeing with the Obama administration on an issue. Rather than attempting to coalesce with issues on which they differ, Texas lawmakers -- by their own admission -- take pride in suing the federal government when disagreeing on an ideological basis on issues of law.

All told, the state has sued the federal government about 40 times since the advent of the Obama administration. Speaking to a Tea Party group in April 2013, Abbott facetiously described his typical workday to those gathered: "I go into the office, I sue the federal government and I go home," he said in a quote recorded in an Associated Press news story.

Abbott's latest shot at the Obama administration is a far cry from just a month ago, when he made an emergency appeal for individual grants benefiting victims of catastrophic flooding. The grants of up to $33,000 went above and beyond tradition aid provided by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and required presidential approval.

Abbott made the plea on a Sunday. By the next day, President Obama had approved the request.

“I would like to thank the President and FEMA for quickly granting Texas’ request for Individual Assistance following last week’s severe weather,” Abbott said in gratitude.

But that was then, and this is now. What a difference a month makes.

>>> Pictured: Texas Gov. Greg Abbott