Biden’s Title IX Rules Allowing Men In Women’s Sports Blocked In 21 States: Where Things Stand
Courts for 21 states have blocked the Biden administration’s guidelines that force public schools to allow trans-identifying males into girls’ bathrooms, locker rooms, and sports.
In addition to the rules being blocked in 21 states, dozens of K-12 schools and universities across the country have been blocked from implementing the rules, which were issued on April 19, 2024. The new rules replace previous guidance from the Trump administration, which didn’t include caveats for transgender students but did increase due process protections for students at schools receiving public funding. The Biden rules remove those due process protections.
Title IX is a federal statute that bans sex discrimination, but the Biden administration has expanded the definition to include sexual identity and gender identification. Courts across the country have determined that this expanded definition is wrong.
On June 13, U.S. District Judge Terry Doughty, a Trump appointee, issued a preliminary injunction against the Biden rules while calling them an “abuse of power” and a “threat to democracy.” His ruling blocked the new guidance from taking effect in Idaho, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Montana.
“Title IX was written and intended to protect biological women from discrimination,” Doughty wrote. “Such purpose makes it difficult to sincerely argue that, at the time of enactment, ‘discrimination on the basis of sex’ included gender identity, sex stereotypes, sexual orientation, or sex characteristics. Enacting the changes in the Final Rule would subvert the original purpose of Title IX: protecting biological females from discrimination.”
On June 17, U.S. District Judge Danny Reeves, a George W. Bush appointee, issued a preliminary injunction blocking the rules in Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia. A few weeks later, on July 2, U.S. District Judge John Broomes, another Trump appointee, issued a similar ruling blocking the new Title IX rules in Alaska, Kansas, Utah, and Wyoming.
Broomes’ ruling went further, however, and included a massive list of K-12 schools and universities across the country where the rules would also be blocked. That list came from schools attended by children of the defendants in that lawsuit, Moms for Liberty, and members of the Young America’s Foundation.
On July 11, U.S. District Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, another Trump appointee, issued another ruling that blocked the Biden Title IX guidance in Texas, Newsweek reported at the time.
On July 24, U.S. District Judge Rodney Sippel, a Clinton appointee, blocked the rules in Arkansas, Iowa, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota.
That brought the total number of states where the rules can’t be implemented to 21.
The Biden administration filed appeals in two of the decisions, but those were promptly denied. The administration is also seeking to have the Supreme Court implement the Title IX guidance that doesn’t include transgender capitulations – such as the provisions regarding reduced due process protections – in the states that have blocked the rules so far, The Hill reported.