A Kentucky federal judge blocked the Biden administration Monday from implementing its Title IX expansion for LGBT students in six states.
Bush-appointed U.S. District Judge Danny Reeves sided with Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman’s lawsuit against the United States Department of Education (ED) in blocking the Biden administration’s new Title IX rule in Tennessee, Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, Virginia and West Virginia, according to the court documents. The new Title IX rule, set to take effect on Aug. 1, 2024, expands protections for LGBT students by preventing discrimination based on “gender identity.”
The complaint was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky, and it alleges “the Department has used rulemaking power to convert a law designed to equalize opportunities for both sexes into a far broader regime of its own making.” Reeves limited the injunction to the six plaintiff states.
US President Joe Biden speaks about the US Supreme Court’s decision overruling student debt forgiveness as Education Secretary Miguel Cardona looks on in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, DC, on June 30, 2023. The court said Biden had overstepped his powers in cancelling more than $400 billion in debt, in an effort to alleviate the financial burden of education that hangs over many Americans decades after they finished their studies. (Photo by Jim WATSON / AFP) (Photo by JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images)
“The new rule contravenes the plain text of Title IX by redefining ‘sex’ to include gender identity, violates government employees’ First Amendment rights, and is the result of arbitrary and capricious rulemaking,” Reeves states in the court ruling. (RELATED: Court Blocks Law Banning Biological Men From Competing In Women’s Sports)
Reeves siding with Coleman’s lawsuit follows in the same steps of Trump-appointed U.S. District Judge Terry A. Doughty blocking Biden’s Title IX rule in four Republican states last week.
Biden’s ED has suffered a string of losses over the expansion in recent weeks, with Trump-appointed U.S. District Judge Terry A. Doughty blocking the rule in four Republican states on Thursday.
Title IX, created in 1972, “protects people from discrimination based on sex in education programs or activities that receive federal financial assistance”, according to the DOE. “Title IX applies to schools, local and state educational agencies, and other institutions that receive federal financial assistance from the Department.”
“We are reviewing the ruling. Title IX guarantees that no person experience sex discrimination in a federally funded educational environment. The Department crafted the final Title IX regulations following a rigorous process to realize the Title IX statutory guarantee. The Department stands by the final Title IX regulations released in April 2024, and we will continue to fight for every student,” an Education Department spokesperson told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
“It would have been hard to find any who thought that discrimination because of sex meant discrimination because of sexual orientation — not to mention gender identity, a concept that was essentially unknown at the time,” Reeves said in the court ruling.
President Joe Biden’s rule expansion doesn’t mention transgender athletes, an issue that has spurred contentious debate in localities across the country.
Editor’s note: This article has been updated to include comment from the ED.
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