Court Rules: Federal Government Cannot Force Tennessee to Allow Biological Males to Compete on Girls’ Sports Teams

Nashville – In a federal lawsuit filed by Attorney General Herbert H. Slatery III and 19 other states’ attorneys general, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee has enjoined the U.S. Department of Education and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission from enforcing new, expansive, and unlawful guidance on federal antidiscrimination laws. The now-enjoined guidance attempted to force schools to allow biological males to compete on girls’ sports teams, to prohibit sex-separated showers and locker rooms, and to compel individuals to use biologically inaccurate preferred pronouns.

“The district court rightly recognized the federal government put Tennessee and other states in an impossible situation: choose between the threat of legal consequences including the withholding of federal funding – or altering our state laws to comply. Keep in mind these new, transformative rules were made without you – without your elected leaders in congress having a say, which is what the law requires,” said Attorney General Herbert H. Slatery III. “We are thankful the court put a stop to it, maintained the status quo as the lawsuit proceeds, and reminded the federal government it cannot direct its agencies to rewrite the law.”

The following states joined Tennessee on the lawsuit: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, and West Virginia.

Read the District Court’s ruling.

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