A federal judge on Monday blocked the Biden administration's new Title IX restrictions in six more states as Republicans and conservative groups seek to overturn policies that expanded protections for LGBTQ students.
In a 93-page opinion, Judge Danny C. Reeves of the Eastern District of Kentucky ruled that the Department of Education went too far in expanding the definition of “sex” to include gender identity.
Reeves halted the restrictions in Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, Virginia and West Virginia just days after federal judges issued similar rulings in Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana and Idaho.
Passed in 1972, Title IX prohibits sex discrimination in education programs that receive federal funding. New regulations broaden the law to prohibit unequal treatment of pregnant students and discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity.
But a coalition of conservative and Christian advocacy groups, as well as Republican state attorneys general, argue that protections for transgender students, such as being able to use locker rooms and restrooms consistent with their gender identity, come at the expense of others' privacy and violate many state laws.
More than 20 Republican-leaning states have petitioned to block the rule from taking effect as scheduled on Aug. 1. An Education Department spokesman said the department is tracking 10 lawsuits challenging the rule.
Echoing recent rulings against the new restrictions, Judge Reeves rejected the Department of Education's central argument: that the Supreme Court's 2020 decision in Bostock v. Clayton County found that gay and transgender workers are protected from workplace discrimination under the Civil Rights Act, justifying the extension of those protections to students under Title IX.
Opponents of the rule argued that separating students based on sex in sports teams, dorms, restrooms and other facilities was essential to Title IX's purpose of ensuring equal opportunity for women when it was passed in 1972, and that the Biden administration's interpretation has confused that intent, and Judge Reeves agreed in his ruling.
“In essence, the final rule accommodates the reality that residence halls remain segregated by sex, but students are free to choose which restrooms and locker rooms to use based on their gender identity,” he wrote.
Judge Reeves also dissented from the rule on First Amendment grounds, questioning whether a teacher who refused to use a student's preferred pronouns “consistent with the student's asserted gender identity” could be investigated for sexual harassment under the rule, even if using pronouns that conflict with a teacher's religious or moral beliefs.
