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 In a filing in the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, the U.S. Justice
Department said the states, led by Texas, had agreed to drop the
lawsuit, and it was dropping its appeal against a federal judge's
August stay on the Obama directive.
In their suit in May, the states said Democratic President Barack
Obama's administration overstepped its authority by ordering public
schools to let transgender students use bathrooms matching their
gender identity, rather than their birth gender, or risk losing
federal funding.
Obama officials had said that barring students from such bathrooms
violated Title IX, the federal law that forbids sex discrimination
in education.
But the directive enraged conservatives who say federal civil rights
protections cover biological sex, not gender identity. Obama was
succeeded by Trump, a Republican, when he left office in January.
Texas was joined in the lawsuit by Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky,
Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Utah, West Virginia and
Wisconsin. The Arizona Department of Education, Maine Republican
Governor Paul LePage and two school districts also were parties to
the suit.
A federal judge in August barred adoption of the order during the
hearing of the case. The Justice Department appealed the stay,
saying it should only apply to the states challenging the order.
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Last week, the Trump administration rescinded the order, leaving
states and school boards to decide how to accommodate transgender
students.
Other lawsuits about the rights of transgender students are being
heard in the courts.
The Supreme Court is set to hear oral arguments on March 28
addressing the question of whether the Gloucester County School
Board in Virginia can block a female-born transgender student from
using the boys' bathroom.
(Reporting by Ian Simpson; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)
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