11 states have sued the U.S. government over the Justice Department's directive that forces public schools to allow transgender students to use bathrooms and locker rooms that align with their gender identity. The states include Texas, Oklahoma, Alabama, Wisconsin, West Virginia, Tennessee, Maine, Arizona, Louisiana, Utah and Georgia. The Department of Education is also involved. It threatened to withhold billions in federal education funding if schools did not comply with the "anti-discriminatory" policies. If you ask me, the argument in this case shouldn't be over whether or not it is right to allow transgender people to use the bathroom that aligns with their identity. Any of the states that go to court and try to fight the directive that way are likely to lose, especially with the Department of Education playing hardball with the funding. No, the argument ought to be over the executive branch's authority to pass down legislative directives such as these. This has been a pretty common occurrence for the past few administrations. While Congress pisses away billions of dollars worth of legislation, the executive branch takes the pilot's seat and uses the Cabinet to force itself into a greater position of power. Congress isn't entirely blameless. They're the ones who handed cash to the executive branch -- the same branch that uses that cash to threaten states into complicity. It's a blatant case of executive overreach. It's also another reason why Presidential elections are becoming such high-stakes games. If the President holds major legislative power, it becomes pretty important for your ideological camp to hold the office. If you ask me, it's this expansion of executive power that has led to the rise of people like Trump. Instead of electing somebody who will play ball with Congress and the Court, it's more important to elect somebody who will take direct action that's more or less in your side's favor. [b]TL;DR[/b] - Don't argue over the directive's content. The major problem is that the Department of Justice is allowed to assert itself in such a direct and authoritative way. Again, I encourage anybody interested in topics like this to check out the group Liberty Hub.