--- description: Texas' attorney general wants to stall a directive to instruct public schools to let transgender students use their preferred bathroom title: Texas Attorney General Wants Transgender Bathroom Directive Stalled Before School Year image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb7c02f2f3a1be1a7/69889aec5f570fe1bcb219d7/texas_ken_paxton_070616.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Politics](/section/politics/) ## Politics Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [LGBT](/tag/lgbt/) ## LGBT Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Texas Attorney General Wants Transgender Bathroom Directive Stalled Before School Year by [Emma Ockerman](/author/emma-ockerman/) ## Emma Ockerman Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Jul 6, 2016 9:20 PM CUT  Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton meets with members of the media at the Supreme Court in Washington on April 18, 2016. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton meets with members of the media at the Supreme Court in Washington on April 18, 2016.Pablo Martinez Monsivais—AP by [Emma Ockerman](/author/emma-ockerman/) ## Emma Ockerman Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Jul 6, 2016 9:20 PM CUT Texas’ attorney general has asked a federal judge to [stall the implementation](http://www.dallasnews.com/news/politics/headlines/20160706-texas-ag-ken-paxton-wants-court-to-halt-obama-edict-on-transgender-bathrooms-before-school-starts.ece?hootPostID=a86b7706f6f562776aabec1d3df07cc6 "undefined") of an Obama Administration directive that would instruct public schools to allow [transgender students to use whichever bathroom](http://time.com/4328917/transgender-bathroom-school-lgbt-obama/?iid=sr-link2 "undefined") matches their gender identity. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton joins a dozen other states—all of which are a part of a coalition led by Paxton against the directive—in asking the directive be stalled before the school year begins in August, the Dallas _Morning News_ reports. [The states had already filed a federal lawsuit against the Obama administration](http://time.com/4347945/transgender-bathroom-lawsuit-obama/?iid=sr-link1 "undefined") in May to demand that the directive be permanently blocked. That month, the Obama Administration wrote every public school district in the country to warn them against not allowing students to use whichever bathroom they preferred. It implicitly threatened noncompliant schools with lawsuits or the withdrawal of federal funding. The case requesting the directive be stalled [was filed in the U.S. District Court in the Northern District of Texas](http://time.com/4365202/north-carolina-bathroom-tweaks-unlikely-to-satisfy-critics/?iid=sr-link8 "undefined") on Wednesday, according to the _Morning News._ If approved, it would affect public schools across the country. It follows a [non-binding opinion that Paxton issued last week](http://www.dallasnews.com/news/politics/headlines/20160628-texas-ag-ken-paxton-fort-worth-isd-s-transgender-policy-violates-state-law.ece "undefined"), which said the new guidelines for transgender students would violate state law. The states involved in the lawsuit are Alabama, Arizona, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Utah, Wisconsin and West Virginia. \[[Dallas _Morning News_](http://www.dallasnews.com/news/politics/headlines/20160706-texas-ag-ken-paxton-wants-court-to-halt-obama-edict-on-transgender-bathrooms-before-school-starts.ece?hootPostID=a86b7706f6f562776aabec1d3df07cc6 "undefined")\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4395687/texas-attorney-general-transgender-bathroom-stalled-before-school-year/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4395687/texas-attorney-general-transgender-bathroom-stalled-before-school-year/"},"headline":"Texas Attorney General Wants Transgender Bathroom Directive Stalled Before School Year","datePublished":"2016-07-06T21:20:05.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T23:05:38.141Z","description":"The directive instructs schools to let transgender students use their preferred bathroom","url":"https://time.com/4395687/texas-attorney-general-transgender-bathroom-stalled-before-school-year/","keywords":["LGBT","Texas"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb7c02f2f3a1be1a7/69889aec5f570fe1bcb219d7/texas_ken_paxton_070616.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Emma Ockerman","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/emma-ockerman/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb7c02f2f3a1be1a7/69889aec5f570fe1bcb219d7/texas_ken_paxton_070616.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Ken Paxton, Scott Keller","caption":"Ken Paxton, Scott Keller","creditText":"Pablo Martinez Monsivais—AP","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/lgbt/","name":"LGBT"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4395687/texas-attorney-general-transgender-bathroom-stalled-before-school-year/","name":"Texas Attorney General Wants Transgender Bathroom Directive Stalled Before School Year"}}]}] ```