Our Lawsuit

National Women’s Law Center, together with Democracy Forward, is representing Maryland legal services provider FreeState Justice in challenging the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and its Acting Chair Andrea Lucas for its policy of unlawfully refusing to enforce federal workplace protections for transgender workers. We filed 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, 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.

 

Filings