Attorney General Alan Wilson announces Court rules federal government cannot force SC to allow biological males to compete on girls’ sports teams, use girls’ showers/locker rooms
July 20, 2022
Attorney General Alan Wilson announces a federal court has ruled that the federal government cannot force schools in South Carolina and 19 other states to follow new anti-discrimination rules. The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee has blocked the U.S. Department of Education and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission from enforcing new, expansive, and unlawful guidance on federal anti-discrimination laws in states that sued over them. 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.
“These new guidelines put South Carolina and other states in an impossible situation. Our state passed a new law called the Save Women’s Sports Act and if we followed state law we would face legal consequences, including the threat of losing federal funding,” Attorney General Wilson said. “The federal government cannot hold South Carolina hostage for passing its common sense laws and for not following the federal government’s nonsensical policies.”
He also points out that the federal government did not follow the law when passing these new federal guidelines because there was no input on them from Congress or the public.
In addition to South Carolina, the following plaintiff states joined Tennessee: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, and West Virginia.
To read the District Court’s ruling, click here.
