Texas judge blocks transgender bathroom directive

The temporary injunction signed by Judge Reed O'Connor follows a challenge to President Barack Obama's directive by 13 states and applies across the United States.

The injunction was passed the day before many students go back to school.

Judge O'Connor, who was appointed by George W. Bush, said schools should have been allowed to have a say before the White House directive was issued.

"This case presents the difficult issue of balancing the protection of students' rights and that of personal privacy... while ensuring that no student is unnecessarily marginalised while attending school," he said.

According to the BBC, the injunction does not prohibit schools from allowing transgender students to use bathrooms consistent with their gender identity, but those that don't will not have to conform.

The Justice Department reportedly issued a brief statement saying it was disappointed in the ruling and was reviewing its options.

Paul Castillo, a Dallas attorney for the gay rights group Lambda Legal, said the ruling was the latest attack on transgender rights. "I think today is going to be a hard day for transgender students. The decision is certainly emotional and certainly an attack on transgender students' dignity,'' he said.

The lawsuit against President Obama's directive was filed in May by Texas, Alabama, Wisconsin, West Virginia, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Utah and Georgia, and the Republican governors of Maine, Mississippi and Kentucky.

Two small school districts in Arizona and Texas, which have fewer than 600 students combined and no transgender people, also joined the effort.

In 2015, O'Connor granted an order that temporarily blocked federal rules that would have expanded medical leave benefits to some gay couples.