Monday, August 19, 2024

The Litigious Society

Do we like to sue, we like it so much that we do it at a drop of the hat, but some times it is justified.
Transgender girls sue New Hampshire officials over sports ban
Twenty-five states have laws banning trans students from competing on sports teams consistent with their gender identities, according to the Movement Advancement Project.
NBC News
By Matt Lavietes
August 16, 2024


Two transgender teenage girls and their families sued New Hampshire education officials on Friday over a new law that will bar some trans students in the state from competing on school sports teams that match their gender identities.

The legislation, House Bill 1205, goes into effect Monday and will require students in grades 5-12 to compete on school sports teams that match the gender marked on their birth certificates.

Parker Tirrell, 15, and Iris Turmelle, 14, along with their families argue in their lawsuit that the new law violates Title IX federal civil rights rules, which prevent sex discrimination in federally funded education programs and activities.


And we are back in court in a once settled case but has been resurrected.
Transgender athlete lawsuit returned to federal court in Connecticut Friday
On Friday, a federal judge heard oral arguments in a lawsuit filed by four female athletes who argue they were forced to compete unfairly against transgender athletes.
NBC Connecticut
By Briceyda Landaverde
August 16, 2024


A legal battle continued on Friday between four female athletes and the Connecticut Association of Schools.

“Today was all about these four athletes that were deprived of fair competition, out to have their day in court,” attorney Cody Barnett said.

In 2020, the female athletes filed a lawsuit, arguing that policies under the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference, or CIAC, allowed transgender athletes to compete against them, which they said led to lost titles, discrimination and a violation of their Title IX rights.  

“Chelsea Mitchell for instance, would have won 15 championships but for this policy. Alanna Smith, would have won additional state championships. Selina Soule and Ashley Nicoletti would have advanced to higher levels of competitions but were unable to do so because of this unfair competition,” Barnett added.

Friday’s hearing comes after an appeals court in Manhattan revived the case that was previously dismissed in 2021.

Chino Valley schools’ lawsuit over transgender law broke open-meeting law, activist alleges
Complaint targets move to stop new state legislation that prevents parent notification policies
Author
The Press Enterprise
By Jordan B. Darling
August 13, 2024


The Chino Valley school board has been accused of violating the state’s open-meeting law over a lawsuit aimed at stopping California’s new law prohibiting schools from enacting parent notification policies.

In a July 25 letter to Superintendent Norm Enfield, past school board candidate Lisa Greathouse alleges that the board violated the Ralph M. Brown Act because the Chino Valley Unified School District sued the state “without an opportunity for a public hearing and public comment.”

The district cannot comment on the matter because there may be legal action, spokesperson Andi Johnston said in a Tuesday, Aug. 13, email.

Greathouse’s letter alleges that the board violated the act when it met in closed session June 20 and discussed changing language in its contract with the Liberty Justice Center, a Texas-based law firm representing the district. At the same meeting, the board later voted on the revised contract under its “consent calendar,” a grouping of routine decisions that are typically approved in one vote without discussion.

Transgender woman awarded $50,000 settlement from Kansas Highway Patrol
Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly and Republican legislators approved the deal Thursday.
LGBTQ Nation
By Greg Owen Saturday
August 17, 2024


A woman who sued the Kansas Highway Patrol for firing her after she came out as transgender was awarded a $50,000 settlement on Thursday.

The deal was negotiated by the state’s attorney general and was unanimously approved in a video conference meeting by Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly and eight leaders of the Republican-controlled Kansas Legislature.

Neither Kelly, the GOP legislators nor the woman commented following the approval. The lawsuit sought damages for lost wages, suffering, emotional pain, and “loss of enjoyment of life.”

The former Highway Patrol employee was a buildings and grounds manager at the patrol’s Topeka headquarters. They sought to socially transition at work from male to female. Court records reported by the AP indicate the ex-employee, whose last name was listed as Dawes, was referred to by a male first name and male pronouns.  

[...]

The Highway Patrol said Dawes was terminated following accusations of sexual harassment and a “lack of cooperation” in an investigation over the issue, the patrol claimed.


And then we have the state law suits…
Texas sues Biden again to block federal protections for transgender workers
The Texas Attorney General is following his familiar playbook by taking the case to a federal judge with a record of rulings against the Biden administration’s agenda.
Texas Tribune
By Kayla Guo
Aug. 15, 2024


Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton returned to court on Thursday to press his case against the Biden administration’s workforce protections for transgender employees.

Texas’s lawsuit, filed in federal court on Thursday against the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the U.S. Justice Department, argued that the agency’s guidelines were unlawful and asked that the court permanently block them.

The EEOC’s guidance, released in April, seeks to clarify what constitutes harassment under federal law. It states that denying employees accommodations for their gender identity — such as by prohibiting an employee from using the bathroom of their gender identity or repeatedly and intentionally using a name and pronoun that is inconsistent with a person’s gender identity — is unlawful workplace harassment.

[...]

The Texas suit said that the guidance “purports to preempt the State’s sovereign power to enact and abide by its workplace policies” and raises the “forced choice of either changing their policies at taxpayer expenses or ignoring the Guidance and accepting impending enforcement actions and increased costs of litigation and liability.”
There is a familiar name organization that is helping Texas,
The lawsuit, which Texas filed along with the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, is a continuation of Paxton’s legal challenges to the Biden administration’s gender-affirming policies. It is one of dozens of suits Texas has brought against the federal government since Biden stepped into the White House in January 2021, legal steps that seek to advance some of the highest-priority conservative issues of the day.
This is just a sample of Project 2025's "state’s sovereign power" that strips the Constitution of it authority.

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