Tennessee attorney general comes off 'sidelines,' joins states suing Obama over transgender decree

Tennessee Attorney General Herbert Slatery III speaks to attendees at the Pachyderm Club on Monday, Oct. 26, 2015, in Chattanooga, Tenn.
Tennessee Attorney General Herbert Slatery III speaks to attendees at the Pachyderm Club on Monday, Oct. 26, 2015, in Chattanooga, Tenn.

Attorney generals weigh in

"The guidance letter is yet another example of the President's unconstitutional overreach. The Constitution gives only Congress the power to write and rewrite laws. Threatening to withhold taxpayer dollars from schools if they don't comply with this new and legally unsound mandate is unconstitutional. I will continue to defend the Constitution on behalf of Georgians." - Georgia Attorney General Sam Olens "The Executive Branch has taken what should be a state and local issue [under the Tenth Amendment] and made it a federal issue. Schools that do not conform under the new rules risk losing their federal funding. This is yet another instance of the Executive Branch changing law on a grand scale, which is not its constitutional role. - Tennessee Attorney General Herbert Slatery "There is no room in our schools for discrimination." - U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch

NASHVILLE - Tennessee Attorney General Herbert Slatery today joined with 10 other states, including Georgia and Alabama, to sue the U.S. Departments of Justice and Education over the Obama administration's recent directive on transgender students in the nation's public schools.

Slatery, a Republican appointee, has been under fire for weeks from elected GOP social conservatives to join a North Carolina lawsuit over the transgender student bathroom policy issue.

Last week, Tennessee government's top lawyer gave assurances to Republican leaders he would defend local school systems if the federal government acted to halt federal funding based on a federal interpretation of Titles VII and IX of the 1964 Civil Rights law.

"The Executive Branch has taken what should be a state and local issue [under the Tenth Amendment] and made it a federal issue," Slatery said in a statement issued only after news of the lawsuit was made public in Texas.

Schools that don't conform to the "new rules risk losing their federal funding, Slatery warned and added "this is yet another instance of the Executive Branch changing law on a grand scale, which is not its constitutional role."

He said "Congress legislates, not the Executive Branch. Our Office has consistently opposed efforts like this to take away states' rights and exclude the people's representatives from making these decisions, or at a minimum being able to engage in a notice and comment period under the Administrative Procedures Act (APA)."

The attorney general also said as the complaint describes, "it is a social experiment implemented by federal departments denying basic privacy rights and placing the burden largely on our children, not adults. Sitting on the sidelines on this issue was not an option."

In a statement, Georgia Attorney General Sam Olens said called the federal government's "guidance letter yet another example of the President's unconstitutional overreach.

"The Constitution gives only Congress the power to write and rewrite laws," Olens said. "Threatening to withhold taxpayer dollars from schools if they don't comply with this new and legally unsound mandate is unconstitutional. I will continue to defend the Constitution on behalf of Georgians."

U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch had previously said that "there is no room in our schools for discrimination."

The lawsuit charges the Obama administration with "running roughshod over commonsense" policies aimed at protecting children. It requests a judge to call the policy unlawful and void.

On Tuesday, Tennessee House Republican Caucus Chairman Glen Casada said he was suspending efforts to push lawmakers to hold a special session in light of comments by Slatery that he would defend Sumner County schools if federal officials sued.

Today, Casada praised Slatery, saying "what we wanted to do in the House is just to make sure that we defended our schools and fight this unconstitutional directive from the DOJ. And that's been met. So I applaud the attorney general and the governor for their leadership."

Sen. Mike Bell, R-Riceville, who had introduced the Tennessee bill requiring students to use bathrooms based on their sex at birth, said "I wholeheartedly support" Slatery's move.

"The egregious action by the Obama Administration in overstepping their constitutional authority to force transgender bathrooms on states and localities across the nation should not stand in court," Bell said. "This was the right course of action."

Haslam Press Secretary Jennifer Donnals said in a statement that the governor "fully supports Gen. Slatery's action on behalf of our state. He disagrees with the Obama administration's overreach and heavy-handed approach. Congress has the authority to write the law, not the executive branch."

Besides Tennessee, Georgia and Alabama, other states joining in the lawsuit are Texas, Oklahoma, Wisconsin, West Virginia, Maine, Oklahoma Louisiana and Utah.

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