FORT WORTH, Texas – Twenty-three states are suing the federal government over President Obama’s directive this spring about transgender students, and more than a dozen are asking the court to block it.

The Obama administration’s Justice and Education departments sent letters to all public schools in May alleging that federal Title IX laws prohibit schools from segregating bathroom and locker room facilities by sex. The letter, of course, comes with the implied threat that the government will revoke funding for schools that don’t comply with the president’s perspective.

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A total of 23 states sued the federal government to oppose the president’s “guidance” – 13 that filed a joint lawsuit that’s currently underway in Texas, and 10 other states that sued the government in a separate lawsuit playing out in Nebraska.

In Fort Worth on Friday, attorneys representing states in the Texas lawsuit asked the court to grant an injunction to prevent schools from implementing Obama’s “guidance” until the legality of the issue is settled.

According to Reuters:

Austin Nimocks, a lawyer who represented the Texas attorney general’s office, said the federal recommendations already are being enforced, placing billions of dollars in federal funding for education at risk for states that do not comply.

Nimocks called the guidelines rules that were foisted upon the states and said their reach “extends across the country, to every school district, without exception.” Nimocks asked the judge for a ruling encompassing schools nationwide as soon as possible, saying students are returning to schools in a matter of days.

The hearing came days after the U.S. Supreme Court set aside a lower court ruling in a different case involving a transgender Virginia high schooler that would have forced the school district to allow the biologically female student to use the boy’s bathroom, EAGnews reports.

Attorney Benjamin Berwick, who represented the Justice Department in Fort Worth on Friday, urged U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor to dismiss the request for an injunction because Obama’s edict is not legally binding.

“These documents state explicitly that they do not have the force of law,” Berwick said, according to Reuters.

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O’Connor questioned Berwick about whether the president’s directive forces schools to change their transgender policies, but did not issue a ruling on the injunction at the hearing. It’s unclear when that might happen, Fox News reports.

Obama’s transgender directive in May enraged many state leaders who believe the president is twisting the intent of Title IX laws by applying protections to gender identity, rather than biological sex.

Alabama, Wisconsin, West Virginia, Tennessee, Arizona, Maine, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Utah, Georgia, Mississippi and Kentucky are party to the Texas lawsuit. The other lawsuit in Nebraska involves that state, as well as Arkansas, Kansas, Michigan, Montana, North Dakota, Ohio, South Carolina, South Dakota and Wyoming.

“Nebraska Attorney General Doug Peterson says in a news release that the U.S. Education Department and Justice Department have circumvented established law and the process for changing existing laws,” the Associated Press reported in early July. “Peterson also says the rule takes away the authority of local school districts to deal with such issues on an individualized basis.”