Featured image: From left to right, Senators Scofield, Williams, and Livingston
DeKalb Senators Phil Williams, Steve Livingstson and Clay Scofield send letters to Gov. Bentley, AG Strange to refuse to comply with federal directive
By Joseph M. Morgan
DEKALB COUNTY, Ala.—DeKalb County’s Legislative Delegation in the Alabama Senate, Sen. Phil Williams (R-Rainbow City), Sen. Steve Livingston (R-Scottsboro), and Sen. Clay Scofield (R-Guntersville), sent a letter penned by Sen. Williams to Gov. Robert Bentley and Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange urging them to stand firm against President Barack Obama’s recent directive on school bathrooms—an order they say is unconstitutional.
“In his attempt to force America’s schools to allow transgender students to use bath and locker rooms of their choosing, President Obama is once again shredding the Constitution and attacking anyone who stands for traditional values,” Williams stated. “I applaud Attorney General Strange for joining ten other states in a lawsuit against the federal government’s overreach.”
A practicing attorney, Williams argues in the letter that self-professed gender identity is not accorded the same constitutional protections as race and sex under either the Civil Rights Act or Title IX of the 1972 Education Amendments.
The letters quote the late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, stating that if the administration’s distortion of the language of law is allowed to stand, then “words no longer have meaning.”
“Everyone is against discrimination. But prohibiting men from using female restrooms is emphatically not discrimination – it’s common sense,” Williams argued. “There is a long-held legal right to privacy and security that the current architects of social engineering have chosen to simply ignore. On behalf of our constituents, we must take a stand.”
State Rep. Will Ainsworth, also a DeKalb County Legislator, has joined Williams, Livingston and Scofield as four of Alabama's loudest voices declaring Obama’s bathroom directive unconstitutional. Ainsworth has promised a bill that he will introduce in the Alabama House of Representatives to help protect Alabama schoolchildren from being forced to share bathrooms with members of the opposite sex.
Like Ainsworth, Williams is the author of pre-filed Senate legislation on this same issue, expected to undergo debate in the next regular session of the Alabama Legislature in 2017. Williams’ bill was pre-filed the day before the Obama administration’s decree on May 13.
