A coalition of 20 Republican-led states is suing the Biden administration due to what it calls overreaching interpretations of the Supreme Court decision last year that expanded protections for LGBT people against discrimination in the workplace.
Agencies under the Biden administration have construed the court's decision to include protections for transgender people regarding the use of bathrooms or locker rooms, or joining sports teams.
According to The Hill, a complaint filed Monday in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee, led by Tennessee Attorney General Herbert H. Slatery III, maintains that the Department of Education and Equal Employment Opportunity Commission "issued 'interpretations' of federal antidiscrimination law far beyond what the statutory text, regulatory requirements, judicial precedent, and the Constitution permit."
Slatery argues that federal institutions do not "have the authority" to extrapolate from the Supreme Court's decision.
The Supreme Court in 2020 ruled in Bostock v. Clayton County, Georgia, that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits discrimination based on sex or sexual orientation, or identity.
The court did not, however, rule on the issue of sex-segregated bathrooms or locker rooms.
"But that has not stopped" federal agencies such as the EEOC from trying, Slatery argues.
"Even their attempts, as unlawful as they are, did not follow the Administrative Procedures Act," the Tennesse attorney general adds.
"These agencies also have misconstrued the Supreme Court's Bostock decision by claiming its prohibition of discrimination applies to locker rooms, showers, and bathrooms under Title IX and Title VII and biological men who identify as women competing in women's sports, when the Supreme Court specifically said it was not deciding those issues in Bostock."
"All of this, together with the threat of withholding educational funding in the midst of a pandemic, warrants this lawsuit."
Other plaintiffs in the case include the attorneys general of Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Mississippi, Nebraska and South Carolina.
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