U.S. President Joe Biden speaks at the Tribal Nations Summit at the Department of the Interior on December 9, 2024 in Washington, DC, USA.
Elizabeth Franz | Reuters
Biden administration’s Title IX Rules Expanded protections for LGBTQ+ students have been repealed nationwide after a federal judge in Kentucky found they overstepped the president’s authority.
In a ruling issued Thursday, U.S. District Judge Danny C. Reeves struck down the entire 1,500-page regulation, finding it “fatally” tainted by legal flaws. The rule had already been suspended in 26 states after a series of uproar. legal challenge By Republican states.
President-elect Donald Trump has previously made anti-transgender themes a centerpiece of his campaign, vowing to repeal the rule “from day one.”
This decision lawsuit Tennessee, Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, Virginia and West Virginia have applied.
Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Scrumetti said it was a rejection of the Biden administration’s “relentless push to impose radical gender ideology.”
“The Biden rule would be completely null and void, leaving President Trump free to review Title IX regulations upon his return to office,” Scumetti said in a statement.
The Education Department did not immediately comment on the decision.
Controversy arose when the Biden administration finalized the new rules last year. regulations have expanded Title IXa 1972 law that prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in education, and also prevents discrimination on the basis of gender identity and sexual orientation. The definition of harassment has also been expanded to include a broader range of misconduct.
Civil rights activists hailed the move as a victory, saying it gave LGBTQ+ students another tool against discrimination. However, it drew anger from conservatives who said it could be used to protect transgender athletes in women’s sports.
The rules did not specifically address athletics, instead detailing how schools and universities must respond to cases of discrimination and sexual assault. a Separate proposal Addressing transgender athletes in sports has been put on the back burner, and then canceled After it became a focus of the Trump campaign.
In his decision, Reeves found that the Department of Education overstepped its authority by expanding the scope of Title IX.
There’s nothing in the 1972 law to suggest it should cover more than it has since Congress enacted it, Reeves wrote. He called it “an attempt to circumvent the legislative process and completely transform Title IX.”
The judge also found that the school violated free speech rights by requiring teachers to use pronouns that matched students’ gender identities.
“The First Amendment does not allow the government to chill speech in this way or force speakers to affirm beliefs with which they disagree,” Reeves wrote.
Rather than carving out specific aspects of the rule, Mr. Reeves decided it was best to scrap the entire rule and revert to the previous interpretation of Title IX. He said his decision “will only cause a ‘return to the status quo’ that existed for more than 50 years prior to the effective date.”
Among the rule’s biggest critics was Betsy DeVos, a former education secretary during President Trump’s first term. “The radical, unfair, illegal, and absurd Biden Title IX rewrite is gone,” she wrote on social media site X.
Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee Chairman Bill Cassidy (R-Louisiana) said Biden’s rules would “remove long-standing protections that have ensured equity for women and girls and undermine Title IX.” It betrays the original intention.”
“With President Trump and a Republican majority in Congress, we will ensure that women and girls have every opportunity to succeed in the field and in the classroom,” Cassidy said in a statement.
