United States District Court Judge John Broomes issued what is now the third preliminary injunction against the Biden Administration’s Title IX regulation that adds gender identity to discrimination laws enforced by the Department of Education.
These new rules require men and boys to be allowed to use women’s bathrooms, locker rooms, and shower facilities, and compete against women and girls.
U.S. District Judge Danny C. Reeves said that the new Title IX rules also have serious First Amendment implications because they compel speech from educators.
Title IX is a law, originally passed in 1972, that creates a variety of legal protections for women to have equal access to school locker rooms, sports teams, etc. in schools and colleges.
When President Biden took office his regulators decided to reinterpret the protections based on “sex” in Title IX to also include gender identity and sexuality. If the President's rule change stands, schools that do not allow males who claim they are women to compete against women, use the same bathrooms, locker rooms, and shower facilities would lose federal funding.
“As a parent and as attorney general, I joined this effort to protect our women and girls from harm," Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman said. "Today’s ruling recognized the 50-plus years of educational opportunities Title IX has created for students and athletes."
Hot on the heels of the US Supreme Court’s recent Chevron decision, that bans the administrative state from defining its authority, states are wasting no time in filing suits on a variety of issues – Title IX changes being just one. In short, the overturning of what came to be known as the ‘Chevron Defense’ means that federal administrative agencies can no longer define their power when laws passed by Congress are not clear.
The new Title IX rules finalized unilaterally by the Department of Education expand the definition of sex discrimination to include gender identity with no action from Congress. The changes include a prohibition on single-sex bathrooms and locker rooms and requirements that a school use pronouns based on a student's preferred gender identity.
These changes to Title IX would pave the way to require schools across America to allow male athletes to compete head-to-head against women and girls in sports and allow men and boys into girls’ locker rooms and showers. The rules changes are set to go into effect August 1st, just before the school year begins.
“This is a big victory for women and girls because the Title IX revisions being pushed by the Biden administration would have ended sex-based protections for biological women in locker rooms, bathrooms, sports, and elsewhere, plain and simple,” West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey said.
Since the original Chevron ruling, agencies have made thousands upon thousands of administrative rules that were not explicitly approved by Congress. Congress, in effect, to avoid responsibility and accountability, passed their job of making laws and rules off to the administrative state. The recent US Supreme Court ruling overturning Chevron put a stop to this out-of-control practice and put the onus back onto Congress to do the overarching law and rule-making.
The injunctions do not include every student affected by Biden’s Title IX change. It is hoped that on the strength of the existing ruling the Department of Education will reverse course seeing sure defeat if they try to enforce this mandate across the nation beginning in August.
Fourteen states are included in the three separate injunctions: Alaska, Kansas, Utah, Wyoming, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, Ohio, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia. The Federal Title IX administrator warned educational institutions to be prepared for immediate reversal of the gender-redefining policies of the Biden Administration.