What’s New
A federal judge in Kentucky struck down the Biden administration’s Title IX rule on Thursday, writing that the regulations exceeded the Education Department’s authority and violated the Constitution.
The decision came in response to a lawsuit filed last year by six Republican-led states, which primarily took issue with the Biden rule’s protections for transgender students. Federal-court injunctions last year blocked the rule from being enforced on August 1 in those states and 20 others that sued, leaving in place the Trump administration’s 2020 regulations. The Thursday decision bars the rule from being enforced nationwide.
The Details
In his decision, Chief Judge Danny C. Reeves of the Eastern District of Kentucky emphasized that Title IX is limited by its language to protections against discrimination on the basis of sex, and by interpreting that to include gender identity, the Education Department overstepped its authority.
Biden’s rule, which was released in April, broadened protections for LGBTQ students, including guaranteeing them access to facilities that aligned with their gender identities. To do so, the Education Department leaned on the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2020 decision in Bostock v. Clayton County, which said that Title VII protects LGBTQ employees against discrimination. Reeves took issue with the department’s reliance on Bostock, given “striking differences” between the two civil-rights laws and the fact that the Supreme Court’s majority opinion in the case specified that its decision did not address bathrooms or locker rooms.
Biden’s Title IX rule also added safeguards for pregnant and parenting students; removed live-hearing and cross-examination requirements for sexual-misconduct investigations; and broadened the definition of sexual harassment. Those measures, too, are vacated by Thursday’s ruling.
The Backdrop
The incoming Trump administration was widely expected to undo Biden’s protections for transgender students and furthermore ban them from playing on sports teams that didn’t match their biological sex at birth. The Biden administration proposed, but never finalized, regulations on transgender athletes.
Thursday’s decision means the Trump administration will have less work to do. The first Trump administration did not effect its own regulations pertaining to transgender students, but did remove Obama-era Title IX guidance that said colleges should allow students to use facilities that aligned with their gender identity.
Republicans have vowed to bar transgender women from participating in women’s sports. In a statement, Rep. Tim Walberg, chair of the U.S. House Education and Workforce Committee, celebrated the court’s decision. “From its first day in office, the Biden-Harris administration tried to unilaterally rewrite the legal definition of womanhood to include biological males,” he wrote. “I am proud to support Title IX and the women who fought to defend it — today marks an enormous win for women and girls across America.”
What’s Next
Title IX experts said the Biden administration could still choose to appeal the court’s ruling, but would be running up against the tight deadline of Inauguration Day (January 20) and would face a Sixth Circuit that affirmed blocking the rule in the original six states.
“Unless the U.S. Department of Education steps in and does something more broadly, I don’t think we’re going to have any answers until we get to the Supreme Court,” said Melissa Carleton, higher-education chair at the law firm Bricker Graydon.
As for their policies, most colleges won’t have to lift a finger, since they never implemented the Biden rule. The Biden administration was additionally limited from enforcing its rule at hundreds of institutions that enrolled people affiliated with conservative groups that joined state lawsuits.
“Many schools are basically going to take their draft 2024 policy and shove it down further in their cabinet,” said Andrea Stagg, director of consulting services at Grand River Solutions. “I don’t know if they’ll delete it all together yet but they don’t need to brush off dust.”
