The lack of an attorney general confirmed by President Joe Biden is not preventing his Department of Justice from tearing down the previous government’s guidelines – or pushing the limits of his executive orders.
A lawyer appointed to temporarily head the department’s civil rights division issued a memorandum on Friday undoing a last-minute attempt by the Trump administration to restrict the interpretation of the 2020 Supreme Court ruling that sex discrimination laws in the workplace work also protect transgender people.
Attorney Greg Friel’s directive pointed to Biden’s Induction Day executive order allowing transgender women to participate in women’s sports leagues as the basis for their decision to launch a January 17 review, written by Deputy Attorney General John Daukas of that the department should not leave the Court’s decision in Bostock v. Clayton County extend to other situations.
Biden’s executive order sparked a heated debate over political identity just hours after he took the oath on Wednesday.