Texas Sues Over Illegal EEOC Regulatory Guidance

Ken Paxton, Texas Attorney General

 AUSTIN, TEXAS – (News Release) Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has sued the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, and other officials in the Biden Administration to stop an unlawful attempt to redefine federal law through agency guidance. This lawsuit is Attorney General Paxton’s 75th legal action against the Biden Administration.

 On April 29, the EEOC issued guidance that would redefine the meaning of “sex” in Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to require employer accommodations for bathroom usage, dress code compliance, and pronoun usage in the workplace based on “gender identity” rather than biological sex. However, doing so directly flouts a prior ruling Texas won stopping a substantially similar guidance issued by the EEOC in 2022. According to that ruling, the agency lacked any authority to mandate a reinterpretation of the law and the court vacated the guidance in its entirety. The court also issued a binding declaratory judgment between Texas and EEOC that Title VII did not require employer accommodations for bathroom usage, dress code compliance, and pronoun usage to be according to “gender identity” rather than biological sex —which the Biden Administration did not even appeal. The renewed attempt by the Biden Administration to remake Title VII through agency action contradicts the previous ruling and is clearly unlawful.

 Attorney General Paxton has asked the court to enforce its declaratory judgment, vacate the illegal guidance from April 29, and grant injunctive relief preventing the Biden Administration from issuing further guidance and other resources that are “contrary to law.”

 “Yet again the Biden Administration is trying to circumvent the democratic process by issuing sweeping mandates from the desks of bureaucrats that would fundamentally reshape American law,” said Attorney General Paxton. “Texas will not stand by while Biden ignores court orders forbidding such actions and will we hold the federal government accountable at every turn.”

 To read the filing, click here.