A Kentucky federal judge has struck down President Joe Biden’s Title IX guidelines prohibiting discrimination against transgender students.
On Thursday, U.S. District Judge Danny C. Reeves (an appointee of anti-LGBTQ+ former President George W. Bush) ruled that Biden’s Department of Education (DOE) overstepped its authority and bypassed the necessary legislative process to extend a Supreme Court decision on LGBTQ+ workplace discrimination to schools. The educational guidelines have already been blocked in 26 states.
Related:
In June 2022, Biden’s Education Secretary Miguel Cardona announced that Title IX, the 1972 education law that prohibits discrimination in federally funded schools “on the basis of sex,” should rely on the Supreme Court’s 2020 decision in Bostock v. Clayton County. That court decision found that Title VII’s ban on sex-based workplace discrimination includes discrimination against sexual orientation and gender identity.
Stay connected to your community
Connect with the issues and events that impact your community at home and beyond by subscribing to our newsletter.
But while Biden’s new Title IX rules were set to go into effect on August 1, 2022, Republican attorneys general sued to stop the rule changes. Reeve issued his decision in response to lawsuits filed by attorneys general Tennessee, Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, Virginia and West Virginia.
At issue in the lawsuit were three provisions expanding Title IX’s definitions of sex discrimination and harassment as well as a provision allowing trans students to use school facilities matching their gender identity.
“The three challenged provisions fatally taint the entire rule,” Reeves wrote of the Biden Administration’s interpretation of Title IX. “Put simply, there is nothing in the text or statutory design of Title IX to suggest that discrimination ‘on the basis of sex’ means anything other than it has since Title IX’s inception — that recipients of federal funds under Title IX may not treat a person worse than another similarly-situated individual on the basis of the person’s sex, i.e., male or female.”
“The entire point of Title IX is to prevent discrimination based on sex,” he wrote. “Throwing gender identity into the mix eviscerates the statute and renders it largely meaningless…. [The DOE] reads Bostock far too broadly by importing its holding into the context of Title IX. The Court in Bostock expressly limited its holding to Title VII and, even in that restricted context ‘[did] not purport to address bathrooms, locker rooms, or anything else of the kind.”
Reeves called the DOE’s interpretation “vague and overbroad” and also took issue with a rule provision classifying the misgendering of trans students as a form of harassment. “The First Amendment does not permit the government to chill speech or compel affirmance of a belief with which the speaker disagrees in this manner,” the judge wrote.
“Congress gave the [Education] Department authority to issue rules, regulations, and orders to effectuate Title IX’s prohibition on sex discrimination consistent with the objectives of the statute. However, the Department exceeded that authority in issuing the Final Rule,” he added.
In a statement condemning the ruling, the National Women’s Law Center President Fatima Goss Graves wrote, “Today’s decision displays extraordinary disregard for students who are most vulnerable to discrimination and are in the most need for federal protections under the Title IX rule. The Biden administration’s Title IX rule is essential to ensure that all students—including survivors of sexual assault and harassment, pregnant and parenting students, and LGBTQI+ students—are able to learn in a safe and welcoming environment.”
“We are in the beginning of the fight to protect the rights of all students, especially LGBTQI+ students, as we transition into a new administration,” Graves’ statement continued. “This court ruling turns long-standing legal precedent on its head in a direct, disproportionate attack on trans students that continues to impact their education and livelihood.” Graves pledged to continue fighting for trans and other students’ rights.
Biden’s rule changes didn’t address the issue of trans students playing on school sports teams — his administration has only said that trans students should be given opportunities to participate in sports, but hasn’t issued any guidelines or rules explaining how.
The ruling sets the stage for Trump’s anti-trans agenda
Incoming President-elect Donald Trump has said that “on day one” of his administration he’ll roll back Biden’s trans student protections.
The Trump administration spent four years fighting against the legal argument that laws that ban discrimination “based on sex” ban anti-LGBTQ+ discrimination, particularly in schools. In 2017, then-Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos issued guidance to schools saying that Title IX did not protect LGBTQ+ students, shortly after she and Attorney General Jeff Sessions revoked a guidance from the administration of former President Barack Obama that said the opposite.
Trump is expected to follow Project 2025, a blueprint developed by the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank.
Project 2025 calls for Trump to reinstate his transgender military ban; end educational, workplace, and healthcare protections for trans people; and instruct Congress to define gender as male and female and fixed at birth. The plan would end all acknowledgment of trans people and gender identity.
Trump has vowed to end all federal and government-funded diversity, equity, and inclusivity (DEI) programs. This would end numerous organizational trainings and funding for any groups devoted to serving marginalized communities.
Subscribe to the LGBTQ Nation newsletter and be the first to know about the latest headlines shaping LGBTQ+ communities worldwide.
