Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood says the state will not be joining a lawsuit against the federal government, despite Gov. Phil Bryant's plan to be involved.
"Gov. Bryant has now joined the suit on behalf of his office, but not the state," Hood said Thursday in an online statement, referring to the governor's plan to bypass his authority. "Only the attorney general can represent our state in such lawsuits, which includes all branches of government and, more important, all of the people of our state. I cannot lend the name of the state of Mississippi to this lawsuit."
Clay Chandler, a spokesman for the governor, told The Clarion-Ledger of Jackson, Miss., that the Democratic attorney general refused to join in a federal lawsuit filed Wednesday by Texas and 10 other states. The 11 states are suing the Obama administration over the guidance it issued May 13 that suggests public schools respect the gender identity of transgender students. Chandler told the paper that the governer had plans to use one of his own staff attorneys in the suit.
"In regards to the 11 state lawsuit against the Obama administration over its bathroom directive, our office has talked to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton's office and I intend, as soon as possible, to join the lawsuit against this latest example of federal overreach," the governor wrote on his Facebook page Thursday.
Hood wrote in his online statement that transgender people have been using the restroom that corresponds with their gender identity for many decades. "This activity by a small percentage of people has gone virtually unnoticed by our society for probably a century," he continued.
Since there has been no "enforcement action brought by the federal government against a Mississippi school" because of the guidance, Hood says he will not be taking steps toward joining the lawsuit at this time.
