Third judge blocks Biden’s Title IX expansion in four more states

A federal district court in Kansas on Tuesday granted a preliminary injunction against the new regulations, saying that the Biden administration’s attempt to expand Title IX ignores potential harm to female students. The changes to the women’s rights law would have required public schools to allow males who claim to be females to use women’s locker rooms and compete in women’s sports. The rules are set to take effect in August.

The ruling will halt the regulations from taking effect in Alaska, Kansas, Utah, and Wyoming. The injunction also covers specific schools attended by plaintiffs Katie Rowland, members of Female Athletes United, members of the Young America’s Foundation, and the children of members of Moms for Liberty, according to Alliance Defending Freedom.

U.S. District Judge John W. Broomes is the third judge to halt the changes from being implemented in multiple states. A federal judge in Louisiana last month allowed colleges in Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana and Idaho to ignore the administration’s order. Another judge last month blocked the changes from taking effect in Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia.

What did the Education Department argue? In the ruling, Broomes found that the Department of Education elevated gender identity discrimination over the traditional views of biological sex. The department suggested that female students have not been harmed by having to share bathrooms with male students, despite evidence from one plaintiff that she avoided using school restrooms because boys were not prohibited from using girls’ facilities. The department also relied heavily on the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2020 decision in Bostock v. Clayton County, Georgia, as supportive of the new regulations. That ruling found that an employer violated Title VII by firing an individual because of their sexual preferences or gender expression.

What were the court’s findings? Broomes found that Bostock does not apply to Title IX because the former concerns employment, not education. Title IX also has specific carve-outs for schools, religious organizations, and military institutions to practice sex separation or offer sex-specific benefits as long as one biological sex is not treated inferior to the other.

Broomes also asserted that Title IX was written with the traditional view that there are only two sexes in mind. He said that Biden’s new regulations could allow teenage boys to claim to identify as female to gain access to girls’ facilities and observe them. He said the Education Department failed to consider these concerns when writing the new guidance adequately.

Dig deeper: Read Lauren Dunn’s report for more details on Biden’s re-interpretation of Title IX.