Staff Reports
Five states have taken legal action against the Biden administration, filing lawsuits in an effort to block a final rule that reinterprets Title IX to include gender identity. These lawsuits aim to prevent men who identify as women from being included in the civil-rights law. The lawsuits were announced on Monday and one was filed by a four-state coalition led by Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill, with the support of the Republican attorneys general of Idaho, Mississippi, and Montana. The other was filed by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.
Five states sue to block Biden administration’s rule inserting ‘gender identity’ into Title IXhttps://t.co/MUV9DQzkJj pic.twitter.com/eTmn5ndl3H
— The Washington Times (@WashTimes) April 30, 2024
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton expressed his opposition to the rule change, stating that “Texas will not allow Joe Biden to rewrite Title IX at whim, destroying legal protections for women in furtherance of his radical obsession with gender ideology.” The four-state lawsuit argues that the rule would require schools to treat males and females as the opposite sex based on their gender identity, such as using opposite-sex pronouns for students and staff and opening female restrooms and locker rooms to male-identifying individuals.
Conservative groups and officials from red states have also voiced their opposition to the Title IX update, criticizing President Biden for abandoning protections for girls and women’s rights. They argue that the rule change would redefine biological sex and allow men to compete in women’s sports, violate women’s privacy, and put women and girls in dangerous situations on campus.
The Biden administration defended the final rule, stating that it was intended “to give complete effect to the Title IX statutory guarantee that no person experiences sex discrimination in federally funded education.” The rules are set to take effect on August 1st, and the Department of Education emphasized that they do not include new rules governing eligibility criteria for athletic teams. However, the attorneys general argued that the regulations would inevitably lead to schools allowing male-identifying biological males to compete in girls’ and women’s sports.
The final rule also loosens the Trump administration’s due-process protections on the handling of campus sexual-misconduct claims. For example, it returns to the single-investigator model and removes requirements for live hearings and cross-examination by defendants. The lawsuits against the Biden administration’s reinterpreted Title IX rule are ongoing, with many conservative officials and groups expressing their opposition to the rule change.
