The Department of Justice backed off its defense of the EEOC in a lawsuit challenging agency guidance on workplace gender identity protections following an executive order from President Donald Trump that demands rescission of the commission directive.
The DOJ’s request to cancel oral arguments set for the case scheduled for Monday was approved by Judge Charles Atchley of the US District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee on Jan. 23. He also denied a request for a preliminary injunction from the coalition of 17 Republican-led states suing the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission over its 2024 workplace harassment guidance.
The case is one of several filed by Republican-led states and religious groups seeking to block the guidance that protects workers from misgendering and allows them to use bathrooms that align with their gender identity. The DOJ’s move signals it will pull away from its defense of certain EEOC guidance and initiatives given the new direction of the White House on diversity and gender-related issues.
Trump signed an executive order Jan. 20 directing the federal government to recognize only two sexes. The order directed the EEOC and other agencies to retract certain guidance that protects transgender and nonbinary Americans.
“Defendants respectfully suggest that these developments warrant vacating the oral argument,” the DOJ said.
The EEOC guidance rests on the US Supreme Court decision in Bostock v. Clayton County, which held that Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act protects employees from discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
The Biden administration interpreted the scope of the decision to expand to protections around misgendering or other policies, but the Trump administration said the Biden interpretation of Bostock was “legally untenable.”
The Administrative Procedure Act lawsuit filed by the states in Tennessee federal court accused the EEOC of overstepping with the guidance.
Atchley granted the preliminary injunction without prejudice, inviting the EEOC and states to submit briefs “that account for the changed legal landscape.”
The EEOC is also fending off challenges to the guidance from Texas and a Christian group.
Spokespeople for the DOJ and EEOC didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
The case is State of Tennessee et al v. EEOC, E.D. Tenn., 3:24-cv-00224, order 1/23/25.
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