Judge scraps Biden’s Title IX rules expanding protections for LGBTQ+ students
WASHINGTON — That of the Biden administration Title IX Rules Expansion of protections for LGBTQ+ students has been halted nationwide after a federal judge in Kentucky ruled they exceeded the president’s authority.
In a decision issued Thursday, U.S. District Judge Danny C. Reeves struck down the entire 1,500-page ordinance after ruling that it was “fatally” tainted by legal flaws. The rule had already been halted in 26 states after a surge legal challenges by Republican states.
president-elect Donald Trump previously promised to end the rules “on day one” and made anti-transgender issues a centerpiece of his campaign.
The decision is a response to a court case filed by Tennessee, Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, Virginia and West Virginia.
Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti called it a rejection of the Biden administration’s “relentless drive to impose a radical gender ideology.”
“Because the Biden rule has been lifted altogether, President Trump will have the freedom to revisit our Title IX rules when he returns to office,” Skrmetti said in a statement.
The Ministry of Education did not immediately comment on the decision.
The Biden administration sparked controversy when it finalized the new rules last year. The scheme was expanded Title IXa 1972 law that prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in education, to also prevent discrimination on the basis of gender identity or sexual orientation. The definition of harassment was also expanded to include a broader range of misconduct.
Civil rights advocates hailed it as a victory, saying it gave LGBTQ+ students new options against discrimination. But it sparked outrage from conservatives who said it could be used to protect transgender athletes in girls’ sports.
The rule did not explicitly address athletics and mainly specified how schools and colleges should respond to cases of discrimination and sexual assault. A separate proposal dealing with transgender athletes in sports was put on the back burner and later withdrawn after it became a focal point of Trump’s campaign.
In his decision, Reeves found that the Department of Education had exceeded its authority by expanding the scope of Title IX.
There is nothing in the 1972 law to indicate that it should have more coverage than it has since its passage in Congress, Reeves wrote. He called it an “attempt to bypass the legislative process and completely transform Title IX.”
The judge also ruled that requiring teachers to use pronouns that match a student’s gender identity violates freedom of speech.
“The First Amendment does not permit the government to chill speech or coerce confirmation of a belief with which the speaker disagrees in this manner,” Reeves wrote.
Rather than flesh out certain aspects of the rule, Reeves decided it was best to jettison the regulation in its entirety and return to a previous interpretation of Title IX. He said his decision “will simply cause ‘a return to the status quo’ that existed for more than 50 years before its effective date.”
One of the rule’s biggest critics was Betsy DeVos, former Secretary of Education during Trump’s first term. On the social media site
Bill Cassidy, R-Louisiana, chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, said Biden’s administration “betrayed the original intent of Title IX by eliminating longstanding protections that guaranteed fairness for women and girls.”
“With President Trump and a Republican majority in Congress, we will ensure women and girls have every opportunity to succeed on the field and in the classroom,” Cassidy said in a statement.
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