Summary

Any worker in this country experiencing discrimination who wishes to sue their employer in federal court is required by law to file a discrimination charge with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) first. The EEOC, in turn, is required to investigate and process those charges. Apart from a few relatively rare cases where the EEOC decides to sue the employer itself, what normally happens next is that the EEOC will issue the worker a Notice of Right to Sue when the agency has completed its processing, and the worker may then take their employer to court if they want to. 

But under the Trump administration, for the first time in the agency’s history, the EEOC is taking the position that it can flatly refuse to process discrimination charges anytime they involve a group the administration doesn’t like. That is not the law, which is why National Women’s Law Center, together with Democracy Forward, is representing Maryland legal services provider FreeState Justice in challenging the EEOC and its Chair Andrea Lucas for its policy of unlawfully refusing to enforce federal workplace protections for transgender workers. 

Our Lawsuit

We filed this suit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland on July 29, 2025. Our complaint challenges the EEOC’s sweeping nonenforcement policy that denies transgender workers access to the agency’s investigation process, dismisses ongoing cases brought on their behalf, and halts payments to state and local civil rights agencies for investigating claims tied to discrimination on the basis of gender identity. Since January 2025, the EEOC has moved to dismiss at least seven active lawsuits involving transgender and non-binary workers, stopped processing many discrimination complaints involving gender identity, and instructed staff to classify such complaints as meritless. This policy follows Trump-Vance administration directives, including Executive Order 14168, which redefines federal policy to recognize only two sexes and strips away protections for transgender people across the federal government. 

The EEOC’s actions, our complaint explains, violate the law. Specifically, they violate the Fifth Amendment’s Equal Protection guarantee, the Administrative Procedure Act, and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as made clear by Bostock v. Clayton County, a case where the U.S. Supreme Court held that Title VII’s prohibition against employment discrimination includes discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, confirming protections for LGBTQ+ workers that the EEOC had previously recognized for nearly a decade. 

On October 21, 2025, the government moved to dismiss this case. On November 10, we opposed the government’s motion. We explained that FreeState has standing to challenge the EEOC’s Trans Exclusion Policy because the Policy is harming FreeState, including by depriving it of access to evidence and other information that it needs to serve its clients. We also explained that, contrary to the government’s arguments, the Trans Exclusion Policy is not insulated from judicial review. By the government’s logic, the EEOC could categorically refuse to investigate charges of discrimination brought by Black charging parties, or Catholics, or men—effectively closing its doors to such persons—and the courts would lack authority to grant any relief from such unlawful and unconstitutional action. That, as we explain, is not the law. 

On June 12, 2026, the court granted the EEOC’s motion to dismiss the case. On August 10, we filed our notice of appeal to the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals.