Washington Attorney General Nick Brown is appointing an outside law firm to defend state Initiative 638, the ban on transgender girls in K-12 girls sports that 56% of voters approved in the Nov. 3 election, Brown said Thursday.
Attorneys for Legal Voice, the American Civil Liberties Union of Washington and Pacifica Law Group sued this week to block the initiative on behalf of the state teachers union, a Seattle nonprofit and some student-athlete parents.
The state of Washington is the defendant in the case, and the state attorney general’s office is the agency that defends lawsuits against the state, including suits against voter-approved measures like I-638.
In a written statement Thursday, Brown described that as “one of the most important duties” of the office while also drawing attention to work his office has done in other legal cases to defend transgender Washingtonians.
“My personal views do not dictate what laws get defended or the strength of that defense,” and I-638 must be defended vigorously, Brown wrote.
At the same time, “We will not and cannot abandon” efforts to protect healthcare access and equal treatment for transgender people, Brown added.
“And while voters have passed a law changing our state’s approach to school sports, many other laws remain on the books that protect the rights of transgender people in a wide range of contexts,” he wrote.
“I have therefore decided to appoint an outside law firm, Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner, to defend Initiative 638 on behalf of Washington state.”
Brown described the move as “a common step we take when our office cannot handle a case ourselves,” due to a conflict of interest, a need for special expertise or because of workload. He called Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner a well-respected national firm with a substantial Washington presence.
“I am confident that this approach will best ensure that I-638 is appropriately defended in a way that its supporters can have confidence in, while also allowing our office to continue our other important work defending transgender rights,” the Democratic attorney general wrote.
“My highest obligation is to Washingtonians, and I am confident that this approach best respects their will,” Brown concluded.
The King County Superior Court lawsuit against I-638 argues it discriminates against all girls and infringes on their privacy by requiring them to verify their sex before they can play girls school sports, without imposing the same requirement on boys schools sports. It also argues the initiative discriminates against transgender girls by excluding them from girls sports.
The suit seeks to stop the initiative from taking effect Dec. 3 as scheduled.
Let’s Go Washington, the political action committee that advanced I-638, has objected to the lawsuit’s discrimination and privacy allegations, saying most voters agree “that girls should have their sports and spaces protected.”
