Paxton sues Biden administration over transgender worker protections

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) is suing the Biden administration again over federal workplace protections for transgender employees. 

The lawsuit, filed Thursday in federal court against the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and the Justice Department (DOJ), argues that agency guidelines clarifying what constitutes harassment under federal law are unlawful and asks the court to permanently block them. 

The EEOC guidelines, which are not legally binding, state that denying employees accommodations based on their gender identity — including intentionally misgendering transgender workers or denying them access to restrooms that match their gender identity — is unlawful workplace harassment. 

“The opposite is true,” Paxton, along with the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, wrote in Thursday’s lawsuit. 

“The Biden-Harris Administration is attempting yet again to rewrite federal law through undemocratic and illegal agency action. This time, they are unlawfully weaponizing the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in an attempt to force private businesses and States to implement ‘transgender’ mandates—and Texas is suing to stop them,” Paxton said in a statement. 

Thursday’s complaint was filed in the Northern District of Texas’s Amarillo Division, where U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, an appointee of former President Trump, hears nearly all cases. Kacsmaryk last month rejected Paxton’s request to block an earlier version of the EEOC guidance, ruling that a new complaint needed to be filed. 

The EEOC declined to comment on Thursday’s lawsuit, referring The Hill to the DOJ, which did not immediately return a request for comment. 

Paxton, a frequent critic of progressive policies that expand protections for LGBTQ people, has filed dozens of lawsuits against the Biden administration since President Biden’s inauguration in 2021, a large majority of them to Kacsmaryk, the Texas Tribune reported in May.