Washington— The Supreme Court on Friday refused to allow the Biden administration to implement parts of the new rules that include protections from discrimination for transgender students under Title IX while the legal process continues.
The Supreme Court vacated two separate orders from federal courts in Kentucky and Louisiana, which blocked the Department of Education from enforcing all rules in 10 states. The Justice Department had asked the Supreme Court to put part of the decision on hold, but it denied the request.
Four judges will allow parts of the rule to apply, according to the order, but all members of the court agreed that the main changes that are disputed, including a new definition of “sex discrimination” to include “gender identity” and restrictions. spaces of the same type, can remain blocked.
The size of the issue in the dispute is there announced by the Biden administration in April and expanded Title IX protections for LGBTQ students. The landmark 50-year-old law prohibits educational entities that receive federal funding from discrimination based on sex. Rules take effect August 1, but only in less than half of the country. Federal judges have been temporarily blocked in 26 states as a result of legal challenges.
The court battle before the Supreme Court involves two groups of states that challenge three provisions of the law: The first recognizes that Title IX’s Prohibition on the type of discrimination includes gender identity; second expands the definition of “hostile environment harassment” to include harassment based on gender identity; and the third clarified that the school violated Title IX when it prohibited transgender students from using restrooms and other facilities consistent with their gender identity.
One case was brought by four states, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, and Idaho, as well as the Louisiana Department of Education. The second was filed by six states, Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, Virginia, and West Virginia.
In June, a federal district court in Louisiana and Kentucky found the state were likely to succeed in the case and blocked the implementation of all laws across 10 states involved in the litigation. The Biden administration asked a federal appeals court in both cases to uphold parts of the rule — a provision that was not challenged — but each rejected the request in a split decision.
In seeking emergency relief from the Supreme Court, the Justice Department argued that the district court’s injunction was “grossly overbroad” because it blocked “dozens” of provisions of the rule that had not been challenged by the state, and that lower courts therefore did not do so. find they are likely illegal.
“The district court’s injunction will prevent the department from implementing dozens of important regulatory provisions effectuating Title IX, an important civil rights law protecting millions of students from sex discrimination,” Attorney General Elizabeth Prelogar wrote in two requests.
He said the April 2024 rule was an “omnibus” measure, and largely did not address gender identity. However, the provision includes clarification on the definition of more than a dozen terms, including “complaint”, “elementary school” and “postsecondary institution.”
While acknowledging challenges to federal regulations before they were enacted generally, he accused lower courts of taking a “blunderbuss approach” to early relief in those cases.
“The harm is particularly acute here because Title IX is one of the federal civil rights statutes that guarantees nondiscrimination in the state’s education system,” Prelogar wrote. “If the court does not grant the requested request, the department will not be able to justify the critical protections of these statutes throughout the state.”
But in a challenge from Louisiana involving the four states, Republican officials told the Supreme Court in filings that the Biden administration would “impact” schools, teachers and families.
He claimed that the Department of Education took Title IX and “the promise of equal educational opportunity for both sexes and turned it into a 423-page mandate” that required covered entities to allow male students in bathrooms, locker rooms and other facilities, and teachers. and students use pronouns preferred by transgender people.
“The department cannot seriously contest if remaining partially will spread widespread confusion. Teachers only have a day, at most, before school starts, to understand their obligations under the blue-penciled law,” wrote the Republican attorney general. “And the uncertainty and harm will affect parents and students alike.”
He said there was uncertainty about how the blocked rules would work, leaving parents unable to make decisions about sending their children to public schools.
In a separate filing in the Kentucky case, officials from six states accused the Biden administration of forcing schools to spend “huge amounts” to comply with the new rules in just three months.
He warned the court not to “unleash an eleventh-hour crash – and unnecessary diversion of resources – on schools, students, and the sovereign state.”
In addition to the Louisiana and Kentucky cases, several other challenges to the Biden administration’s Title IX rule are pending in lower courts.
The Education Department’s Title IX overhaul comes amid a flurry of legislation passed in Republican-led states in recent years aimed at transgender youth. More than 20 countries restrict treatments like puberty-blocking drugs, hormone therapy or surgery to minors with gender dysphoria. The constitutionality of one such law, from Tennessee, will reviewed by the Supreme Court in the fall.
At least 11 states have laws on the books that prohibit transgender people from using bathrooms and other facilities that match their gender identity in schools, and 25 states. ban transgender girls from competing in the school’s female sports team.
Jan Crawford contributed to this report.
