A federal judge in Texas has expanded a ruling that blocks protections for LGBTQ students in the state in the context of Title IX.
Concretely, the ruling now prohibits any future action by the federal Department of Education regarding the banning of discrimination on educational settings on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.
To back his decision, judge Reed O'Connor said the Biden administration overstepped its authority and any new guidelines on this area would be illegal. "To allow Defendants' unlawful action to stand would be to functionally rewrite Title IX in a way that shockingly transforms American education and usurps a major question from Congress," the judge said.
"the Department lacks authority to redefine sex in a way that conflicts with Title IX," he added.
In a previous ruling, O'Connor, along with judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, cited a 2020 U.S. Supreme Court decision saying that a ban against sex discrimination in the workplace contained in a different law, Title VII, which covers gay and transgender workers. They said that Title VII does not govern Title IX.
"Title IX protects women in spaces that were historically reserved to men," wrote judge Kacsmaryk in his decision. "In stark contrast, the Final Rule inserts men into the very Title IX spaces statutorily reserved to women." He added that the rule would force Texas schools to stop separating bathrooms, locker rooms and other facilities based on biological sex.
Judge O'Connor, on his end, prevented the rule from going into effect in 11 schools located in Carroll Independent School District. "The Final Rule undermines over fifty years of progress for women and girls made possible by Title IX," O'Connor said.
Governor Greg Abbott had already directed the Texas Education Agency to disregard the rule in late April. "Congress wrote Title IX to protect women. Biden, with no authority to do so, rewrote Title IX to protect men who identify as women," Abbott said when discussing the issue.
In a public letter addressed to the White House, Abbott characterized the new regulations as an "abuse of authority" and vowed to "defend" the original law.
"Title IX was written by Congress to support the advancement of women academically and athletically. The law was based on the fundamental premise that there are only two sexes -male and female," he wrote.
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