he Biden administration’s initiative to rewrite Title IX encountered another obstacle on Monday when a federal judge in Kentucky temporarily blocked the new regulation in six additional states.
U.S. District Judge Danny C. Reeves criticized the regulation as “arbitrary in the truest sense of the word” while issuing a preliminary injunction. This blocks the rule in Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia. This ruling follows another federal judge’s decision days earlier to halt the rule in Idaho, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Montana.
Attorneys general from over 20 Republican-led states have initiated at least seven legal challenges against President Joe Biden’s new policy. They argue that the policy is a deceptive attempt to allow transgender girls to participate in girls’ athletic teams. The Biden administration maintains that the rule does not pertain to athletics.
Still pending is a request for a preliminary injunction filed by the Republican attorneys general of Arkansas, Iowa, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota. The Education Department has requested the judge deny this request.
The ruling in Kentucky was welcomed by the state’s Republican attorney general, Russell Coleman, who stated the regulation would undermine equal opportunities for women.
“The judge’s order makes clear that the U.S. Department of Education’s attempt to redefine ‘sex’ to include ‘gender identity’ is unlawful and beyond the agency’s regulatory authority,” Coleman said in a statement.
The Education Department responded, stating it would “continue to fight for every student” while reviewing the ruling.
“Title IX guarantees that no person experience sex discrimination in a federally funded educational environment,” the department said in a statement. “The department crafted the final Title IX regulations following a rigorous process.”
Judge Reeves highlighted that Title IX was originally intended to “level the playing field” between men and women in education but accused the department of trying to “derail deeply rooted law” with the new policy.
“At bottom, the department would turn Title IX on its head by redefining ‘sex’ to include ‘gender identity,’” Reeves said. “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.”
Reeves added that, at a minimum, students of both sexes would “experience violations of their bodily privacy by students of a different sex” if the rule were enacted.
The rule would require schools to “permit biological men into women’s intimate spaces, and women into men’s, within the educational environment based entirely on a person’s subjective gender identity,” Reeves stated. “This result is not only impossible to square with Title IX but with the broader guarantee of education protection for all students.”
He also noted “serious First Amendment implications” with the new rule.
“The rule includes a new definition of sexual harassment which may require educators to use pronouns consistent with a student’s purported gender identity rather than their biological sex,” Reeves wrote. “Based on the ‘pervasive’ nature of pronoun usage in everyday life, educators likely would be required to use students’ preferred pronouns regardless of whether doing so conflicts with the educator’s religious or moral beliefs. A rule that compels speech and engages in such viewpoint discrimination is impermissible.”
Reeves, appointed by Republican President George W. Bush, delivered the latest setback for the new protections, which civil rights advocates have praised but opponents claim undermine Title IX’s spirit.
The ruling was condemned by the Fairness Campaign, a Kentucky-based LGBTQ+ advocacy group. Chris Hartman, its executive director, said the decision “ignores basic truths about the transgender community and further places in the crosshairs transgender kids, who are among our smallest and most vulnerable populations.”
Conversely, David Walls, executive director of The Family Foundation, a conservative, “faith-based” public policy organization in Kentucky, commended the judge for halting the Biden administration’s “radical redefinition of ‘sex’ that would reverse opportunities that women and girls have enjoyed for 50 years under Title IX.”
Several GOP-led states have laws prohibiting transgender girls from competing on girls’ sports teams. These states argue the new policy would enable such participation. The Biden administration has proposed a separate rule to forbid blanket bans, but stated the finalized rule does not cover athletics.
