On Friday, 10 states — Arkansas, Kansas, Michigan, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Carolina, South Dakota, and Wyoming — filed a lawsuit against the federal government over its rule allowing transgender students in public schools to use the restroom that corresponds with their gender identity, rather than their biological gender. The lawsuit, filed in Nebraska's federal court, accuses the U.S. Education Department and the Justice Department of taking away local authority and bypassing the established process for changing a law.
President Obama insists that the rule, issued in May, is simply a set of guidelines on how to interpret existing laws. "My best interpretation of what our laws and our obligations are is that we should try to accommodate these kids so that they are not in a vulnerable situation," he said last month.
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