A federal judge has blocked the Biden administration’s attempt to rewrite Title IX to interpret “sex” as including all “gender identities,” which Republicans and conservatives charge would have allowed biological men to use women’s bathrooms and locker rooms.
Lexington, Ky. US District Chief Judge Danny Reeves ruled Thursday that the Education Department had exceeded its constitutional authority in issuing a rule that expanded the definition of “sex” for the purposes of filing discrimination complaints or letting people use restrooms corresponding to their “gender identity.”
“As this Court and others have explained, expanding the meaning of ‘on the basis of sex’ to include ‘gender identity’ turns Title IX on its head,” Reeves wrote.
There were also First Amendment concerns in implementing the rule, Reeves noted, given that it would compel people to use other pronouns for those selecting an alternative “gender identity.”
“Congress gave the [Education] Department authority to issue rules, regulations, and orders to effectuate Title IX’s prohibition on sex discrimination consistent with the objectives of the statute. However, the Department exceeded that authority in issuing the Final Rule and the text of Title IX shows why,” he said.
“Put simply, there is nothing in the text or statutory design of Title IX to suggest that discrimination ‘on the basis of sex’ means anything other than it has since Title IX’s inception — that recipients of federal funds under Title IX may not treat a person worse than another similarly-situated individual on the basis of the person’s sex, i.e., male or female,” he added.
Reeves, an appointee of former President George W. Bush, determined that the provisions challenged by more than a dozen GOP-led states were flatly unconstitutional, though the full rule also included other protections for handling claims of sex harassment and assault.
Republican attorneys general in Virginia, West Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky and Tennessee had argued the rule, first introduced last April and implemented in August, undermined Title IX’s equal opportunity protections already in place for men and women.
“Another massive win for TN and the country!” Volunteer State AG Jonathan Skrmetti crowed Thursday on X. “The court’s order is resounding victory for the protection of girls’ privacy in locker rooms and showers, and for the freedom to speak biologically-accurate pronouns.”
The Education Department had already withdrawn a separate rule in December pushing for transgender athletes to compete on the team of their choosing.
In 2020, the Supreme Court determined in Bostock v. Clayton County that employees could not be discriminated against on the basis of “sex” to include their “gender identity,” but that only applied to Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
“It is clear the Biden-Harris administration completely lost its way on Title IX. They betrayed the original intent of Title IX by removing longstanding protections that ensured fairness for women and girls. Good to see this harmful regulation overturned,” said Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), who chairs the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. “With President Trump and a Republican majority in Congress, we will ensure women and girls have every opportunity to succeed on the field and in the classroom.”
President-elect Donald Trump has promised to stop “transgender lunacy” once he takes office and make it the “official policy” of his second administration to only recognize two genders, male and female.
“With the stroke of my pen on day one, we’re going to stop the transgender lunacy,” Trump, 78, told supporters at AmericaFest 2024 in Phoenix, Ariz., last month.
“I will sign executive orders to end child sexual mutilation, get transgender out of the military and out of our elementary schools and middle schools and high schools,” he said, drawing cheers from the crowd.
Reps for the Department of Education did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
