I beforehand reported that quite a lot of states have challenged the brand new Enforcement Steerage on office harassment issued by the U.S. Equal Employment Alternative Fee, primarily based on the place that the EEOC took on gender identification points. As I stated then,
The first foundation of this problem is the Enforcement Steerage place on gender identification, which the plaintiffs contend takes an unjustifiably expansive studying of the U.S. Supreme Court docket’s 2020 determination in Bostock v. Clayton County. In Bostock, the Court docket held that discrimination primarily based on gender identification violated Title VII however particularly declined to handle points like toilet and locker room use. The EEOC Enforcement Steerage takes the place that employers are required to permit transgender staff to make use of the loos related to their gender identification and that it’s illegal harassment for employers to do in any other case.
(On the time of my publish, the State of Texas had not taken any motion towards the 2024 Enforcement Steerage.)
However in 2021, Texas efficiently challenged older steerage issued by the EEOC on related grounds. Then, in Could of this yr, after the 2024 Enforcement Steerage was issued, Texas filed a movement for a preliminary injunction towards the 2024 steerage within the previous case.
This morning, Law360 experiences {that a} federal decide has denied the Texas movement for procedural causes. The decide stated that he was not expressing an opinion in regards to the deserves of the Texas problem however wouldn’t reopen the previous case. That means that Texas should file a brand new lawsuit if it desires to problem the 2024 Enforcement Steerage.
I shall be very shocked if Texas would not go for it.