New federal regulations that would effectively force employers and employees to use transgender pronouns are illegal, says a lawsuit filed by 18 states against the Democrat-run executive agency.
Filed on Monday in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee, the lawsuit brought by Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti and 17 other attorneys general contends that the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s (EEOC’s) unilateral move to extend the 1964 Civil Rights Act’s Title VII protections to include so-called “gender identity” represents an unlawful attempt to “enshrine sweeping gender-identity mandates without congressional consent.”
“In America, the Constitution gives the power to make laws to the people’s elected representatives, not to unaccountable commissioners, and this EEOC guidance is an attack on our constitutional separation of powers,” Skrmetti said in a statement. “When, as here, a federal agency engages in government over the people instead of government by the people, it undermines the legitimacy of our laws and alienates Americans from our legal system.”
According to the suit, the “Enforcement Document” the EEOC released on April 29 “requires all covered employers and employees to use others’ preferred pronouns; allow transgender individuals to use the shower, locker room, or restroom that corresponds to their gender identity; and refrain from requiring employees to adhere to the dress code that corresponds to their biological sex.”
The agency justified its new guidance by citing the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2020 decision in Bostock v. Clayton County, written by Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch and joined by Chief Justice John Roberts along
