Six GOP-led states have filed a lawsuit against the Biden administration seeking to rollback changes to Title IX rules pushed through last month by the Education Department.
Under the new rule changes, state governments, schools, and universities would be forced to ignore biological sex and accept any self-professed gender identity.
Though the Biden administration frames the changes as expanding Title IX protections, attorneys general in the states bringing the legal challenge argue that the effect is precisely the opposite.
According to the lawsuit:
Indeed, if allowed to take effect, that rule will gut the very athletic opportunities that Title IX was designed to provide; destroy the privacy protections women and girls currently enjoy in restrooms, locker rooms, shower facilities, and overnight accommodations; preempt numerous State laws; silence and threaten with investigation any student, faculty member, or administrator who doesn’t share the Department’s view of sex; and deny federal funding to any school or university that doesn’t adhere to those views.
The group of top legal officials from Arkansas, Iowa, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota further state that “for numerous reasons, that rule violates the federal Constitution and the Administrative Procedures Act,” telling the U.S. District court for the Eastern District of Missouri “it should immediately be set aside.”
This is this third legal action the states have brought against the Biden administration over its repeated attempts to use administrative rules to circumvent congress to rewrite Title IX.
“The overwhelming majority of Americans see the Biden administration’s rule change for what it is: a ridiculous, nonsensical, and illegal election-year move that few can comprehend or support. It’s outrageous,” Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin said in a joint statement about the case.
“Congress enacted Title IX to protect and promote opportunities for women and girls in education and sports. For the last half century, that’s what it has done,” he added. “But President Biden and his Department of Education now want to radically reinterpret Title IX and recast it as a rule about gender identity. That contravenes Title IX’s plain language, and it violates the Constitution. That’s why we’re challenging it, and it’s also why we’re confident the federal courts will set aside this unlawful regulation.”
Though they are not part of the lawsuit, other states have vowed to disregard the rewrite of Title IX.
“Texas will not comply with President Biden’s rewrite of Title IX. Period,” Texas Gov. Greg Abbott wrote on social media platform X. “Today, I instructed Texas public colleges and universities to ignore this illegal rewrite. Texas will not let President Biden impose a leftists belief and erase advancements our state has made.”
Florida’s Sarasota County School Board passed a resolution rejecting the Title IX changes.
Additionally, Louisiana and Oklahoma have both vowed to bring lawsuits against the Biden administration over its attempt to have the Education Department rewrite federal law.
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