S*******h
发帖数: 7021 | 1 【 以下文字转载自 USANews 讨论区 】
发信人: Cosmicy (面朝大海), 信区: USANews
标 题: 联邦法官裁决奥巴马的如厕令是联邦政府权力的非法扩张。
发信站: BBS 未名空间站 (Mon Aug 22 13:21:00 2016, 美东)
法官是保守派法官。大家可以看出法官的重要性。
而现在是换大法官的关键时刻！大法官一做就是一辈子。一定要选trump！
http://www.dallasnews.com/news/politics/headlines/20160822-federal-judge-siding-with-texas-blocks-obama-rules-on-bathrooms-for-transgender-students.ece
AUSTIN — A federal judge has temporarily blocked the Obama administration's
instructions for public schools to accommodate transgender students, siding
late Sunday with Texas and a dozen other states that challenged the
contentious guidelines for bathrooms and other facilities.
U.S District Judge Reed O'Connor of Fort Worth, in issuing a nationwide
preliminary injunction, said that federal officials didn't follow proper
procedures in creating the directives. He said the guidelines contradicted
existing statutes and regulatory texts.
And he appeared to agree with Texas' assertion that the guidelines "hold a
gun to the head" of local school districts.
"The information before the court demonstrates defendants have 'drawn a line
in the sand' in that they have concluded plaintiffs must abide by the
guidelines, without exception, or they are in breach of their ...
obligations," he wrote in a 38-page order.
The decision is a blow for the Obama administration, which had said that
schools should allow transgender students to use bathrooms that match their
gender identity.
Federal officials had defended their interpretation that the word "sex" in
anti-discrimination statutes also covers "gender identity." They also argued
that the lawsuit was filed too soon, because the transgender policy isn't
binding and enforcement action hasn't been taken.
Attorneys representing Texas, however, said the guidelines would force
school districts "to mix the sexes in intimate areas." They said the federal
policies "obliterate" past rules, putting Texas and other states at risk of
losing millions of dollars in education funding.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said Monday that he was pleased with the
decision "against the Obama administration's latest illegal federal
overreach."
"This president is attempting to rewrite the laws enacted by the elected
representatives of the people, and is threatening to take away federal
funding from schools to force them to conform," Paxton said in a written
statement.
Justice Department spokeswoman Dena Iverson said the "department is
disappointed in the court's decision, and we are reviewing our options." And
transgender advocates predicted that the ruling would be just a temporary
setback.
"One judge in a district court is simply a bump on the road," said Paul
Castillo, a staff attorney for Lambda Legal, an LBGT rights group that filed
a "friend of the court" brief in this case. "Any adverse decision on this
is an outlier, based on other decisions that have been issued."
The preliminary injunction, which comes as school starts in Texas, applies
all across the country. But other courts in the U.S. have tackled the
question differently, and experts said the order doesn't prevent schools
from having the policies encouraged by the federal government.
Even O'Connor, an appointee of Republican President George W. Bush,
cautioned in his order that "resolution of this difficult policy issue" is
not final.
"This case presents the difficult issue of balancing the protection of
students' rights and that of personal privacy when using school bathrooms,
locker rooms, showers, and other intimate facilities, while ensuring that no
student is unnecessarily marginalized," he wrote.
The battle over transgender rights has emerged as a new front in America's
culture wars, with an outsize portion of the attention focused on bathrooms.
The Fort Worth school district's transgender policy stirred the debate in
Texas, though the issue has boiled over in several states.
At the center of this legal dispute is Harrold Independent School District,
a tiny Texas district of about 100 students near the Oklahoma border.
The district rose to prominence after the U.S. Education and Justice
departments in May explained what schools should do to ensure that there is
no discrimination against transgender children. The directive, while
nonbinding, left little doubt that federal funds could be at stake.
As top Texas Republicans sprung into action, Paxton's office recruited
Harrold ISD to be the lawsuit's lead plaintiff. Though superintendent David
Thweatt isn't aware of any transgender students in the district, the
district affirmed a policy of limiting restroom use by biological sex.
"I know how important it is to protect the privacy, the safety and the
dignity of all students," he said at news conference in May.
Texas was ultimately joined in the lawsuit by Alabama, Arizona, Georgia,
Louisiana, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Utah, West Virginia, and Wisconsin, along
with the Republican governors of Kentucky, Maine and Mississippi.
Federal officials have previously said that they have "strong legal
foundations to uphold the civil rights of transgender Americans." And
despite the decision, LBGT rights groups have vowed to press ahead.
"Transgender Texans, and in particular transgender kids, must be afforded
the most basic dignity to use the bathroom," Chuck Smith, chief executive of
Equality Texas, said in a news release on Monday. |
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