Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia join suit over Obama administration directive

FILE - In this May 6, 2016, file photo, President Barack Obama speaks in the briefing room of the White House in Washington. Roughly 5 million more U.S. workers will soon become eligible for overtime pay under new rules issued by the Obama administration. The policy changes would benefit many salaried employees in the fast food and retail industries who often work long hours, are called managers, but are paid just above the current $23,660 annual threshold that allows companies to deny overtime pay. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File) FILE - In this May 6, 2016, file photo, President Barack Obama speaks in the briefing room of the White House in Washington. Roughly 5 million more U.S. workers will soon become eligible for overtime pay under new rules issued by the Obama administration. The policy changes would benefit many salaried employees in the fast food and retail industries who often work long hours, are called managers, but are paid just above the current $23,660 annual threshold that allows companies to deny overtime pay. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)

By Andy Sher May 26, 2016 5 min read

NASHVILLE – Tennessee, Georgia and Alabama joined with eight other states Wednesday to sue the Obama administration over its directive telling the nation’s public schools to let transgender students use bathrooms matching their gender identity, not biological sex.

Filed in a U.S. District Court in Texas, the lawsuit says the administration is “running roughshod over commonsense policies” and asks a federal judge to toss out the U.S. Justice and U.S. Education Departments’ directive and policies as unlawful and also issue a permanent injunction blocking the federal government from enforcing any of it.

Tennessee Attorney General Herbert Slatery, an appointed Republican who has been under fire from GOP legislative conservatives who were pressing for a special session to order him to sue the administration, declared in a statement that the Obama administration was overreaching and that “sitting on the sidelines on this issue was not an option.”

“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.

The U.S. Constitution’s 10th Amendment reserves rights to states not granted to the federal government.