Within a week, Republican-appointed federal judges have blocked enforcement in 10 states of newly enacted policies to protect transgender students.
The decisions follow a pair of lawsuits from Republican attorneys general taking aim at President Joe Biden’s anti-discrimination platform, which could now be headed for the Supreme Court to decide as GOP officials and conservative Christian legal groups fire off at least five other lawsuits striking back at the president’s transgender-inclusive policy changes.
Landmark civil rights law known as Title IX has barred discrimination in schools based on sex for more than 50 years. Biden’s regulations announced in April expand the scope of those protections to explicitly include discrimination targeting sexual orientation and gender identity.
Those protections – which would apply to every school in the country that accepts federal funding – would allow trans students to play sports and use bathrooms that align with their gender, and allow students to use their preferred names and pronouns.
But on Monday, District Judge Danny Reeves issued an injunction that blocks those protections from going into effect in Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia.
Last week, District Judge Terry Doughty blocked the rules from going into effect in Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana and Idaho.
Education Department attorneys have argued that a Supreme Court’s 2020 ruling– which affirmed workplace discrimination protections for LGBT+ people – should then extend those protections to LGBT+ students.
The judges rejected that argument.
Doughty, who was appointed by Donald Trump, wrote the new rule is “an abuse of power” and a “threat to democracy.”
“Title IX was enacted for the protection of the discrimination of biological females,” Doughty wrote. “However, the final rule may likely cause biological females more discrimination than they had before Title IX was enacted.”
Reeves, an appointee of George W Bush, called Biden’s Department of Education policy “arbitrary.”
He wrote that Title IX was intended to “level the playing field” between men and women in education but the administration is now trying to “derail deeply rooted law” with new policy.
“At bottom, the department would turn Title IX on its head by redefining ‘sex’ to include ‘gender identity,’” the judge wrote on Monday. “But ‘sex’ and ‘gender identity’ do not mean the same thing. The department’s interpretation conflicts with the plain language of Title IX and therefore exceeds its authority to promulgate regulations under that statute.”
The rules are set to take effect on August 1 ahead of the 2024-2025 school year, while a fresh tide of legislation aimed at denying trans students access to affirming healthcare, gendered sports and bathrooms is expected to land in state capitols across the country before November elections.
Human Rights Campaign president Kelley Robinson called the federal court rulings “MAGA theatrics with the dangerous goal of weaving discrimination into law.”
More than 400 bills targeting LGBT+ Americans were introduced in state legislatures this year, according to the LGBT+ civil rights group. At least 27 bills were passed into law.
Last week, House Republicans introduced a measure to roll back Biden’s Title IX policies, which Education Committee Chair Virginia Foxx falsely stated would “allow men to intrude into women’s spaces and take opportunities away from women.”
A spokesperson for the Education Department told The Independent on Monday that the agency is reviewing the recent court decisions.
“Title IX guarantees that no person experience sex discrimination in a federally funded educational environment,” the spokesperson added. “The Department crafted the final Title IX regulations following a rigorous process to realize the Title IX statutory guarantee. The Department stands by the final Title IX regulations released in April 2024, and we will continue to fight for every student.”
