A federal judge appointed by former President Bill Clinton issued a temporary injunction stopping the state of Tennessee from enforcing its new bathrooms signage law.
HB 1182 requires businesses that allow both biological sexes to use the same bathroom, locker room, or other typically-single sex area, to post signage reading “this facility maintains a policy of allowing the use of restrooms by either biological sex regardless of the designation of the restroom.”
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), a known transgender rights group, sued the state on behalf of two Tennessee businesses. In a separate lawsuit, Mike Curb, owner of Curb Records and former Republican Lieutenant Governor of California, also sued the state.
The ACLU’s lawsuit claims such signage is a violation of the First Amendment rights of private businesses.
Middle District of Tennessee Judge Aleta A. Trauger agreed.
“If there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation, it is that no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion or force citizens to confess by word or act their faith therein,” Trauger wrote in a decision to temporarily block the law from being enforced.
“That rule is not founded simply on an abstract love of unfettered and uncompelled speech,” Trauger continued. “The First Amendment holds its privileged place in our constitutional system because, ‘whenever the Federal Government or a State prevents individuals from saying what they think on important matters or compels them to voice ideas with which they disagree, it undermines’ both ‘our democratic form of government’ and the very ‘search for truth’ necessary for a thriving society to persist.”
She called the new law a “brazen violation” of the First Amendment.
The ACLU celebrated the ruling on Twitter, describing the law as “anti-trans.”
“A federal court has blocked Tennessee’s anti-trans restroom law from going into effect,” the group said. “Our clients, two Tennessee business owners with trans-inclusive restroom practices, challenged the law that would have forced them to post a government-prescribed warning sign.”
BREAKING: A federal court has blocked Tennessee’s anti-trans restroom law from going into effect.
Our clients, two Tennessee business owners with trans-inclusive restroom practices, challenged the law that would have forced them to post a government-prescribed warning sign.
— ACLU (@ACLU) July 9, 2021
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Pete D’Abrosca is a contributor at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Pete on Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Gender Neutral Bathrooms” by tedeytan. CC BY-SA 2.0.
…a man can now enter a women’s restroom and do naked jumping jacks. (true story)
So where’s the ACLU when it comes to forced vaccinations? (Chirp-chirp chirp-chirp)
I must have been asleep when this was filed but what two businesses filed suit? I want to be sure to avoid them and to inform my friends of their despicable action.
So if a person asks about a business’s policy, is the business forbidden from answering that question!
People need to start boycotting business that allow both genders to use the same bathrooms or dressing rooms.
This judge is totally insane and us catering to a small portion of our country who seeks nothing more than to divide us!