Education Week reports the Biden administration’s new Title IX rule, which explicitly prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity in schools, won’t go into effect in four states in August after a federal judge temporarily blocked it.
The June 13 preliminary injunction applies to Idaho, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Montana and is the first legal blow to the U.S. Department of Education’s April rewrite of Title IX regulations. The Education Department has said schools must comply with the revised rule by Aug. 1, but at least seven lawsuits involving 26 states aim to prevent it from taking effect. The legal challenges take issue with the department’s attempt to include gender identity in the regulation’s definition of “sex-based discrimination.”
Additional Title IX court action
According to Fox News, a federal judge in Texas last week struck another blow to the Biden administration’s attempts to rewrite Title IX rules. that says school districts must allow boys to use girls’ restrooms and locker rooms if they identify as such.
U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor in Fort Worth, Texas, said officials tried to re-write federal law barring sex discrimination in schools, applying it to LGBTQ students, Reuters reported. The ruling came amid a lawsuit filed by Texas’ Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton.
“To allow Defendants’ unlawful action to stand would be to functionally rewrite Title IX in a way that shockingly transforms American education and usurps a major question from Congress,” wrote O’Connor;
Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach says it would be “foolish and a waste of money” for Kansas districts to adopt policies to comply with the Title IX rule.
(Editor’s note: this article has been updated to reflect additional court action on Title IX)
