Multiple states filed lawsuits Monday against the Biden administration over its controversial Title IX overhaul that changed the definition of sex to include claimed gender identities.
Louisiana, Mississippi, Idaho, and Montana banded together in one lawsuit, partnering with education advocacy group Defense of Freedom Institute, and Texas, partnering with conservative law firm America First Legal, filed another lawsuit separately.
“This is all for a political agenda, ignoring significant safety concerns for young women students in pre-schools, elementary schools, middle schools, high schools, colleges and universities across Louisiana and the entire country,” Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill said in a press release. “These schools now have to change the way they behave and the way they speak, and whether they can have private spaces for little girls or women.”
“It is enormously invasive, and it is much more than a suggestion; it is a mandate that well exceeds their statutory authority,” Murrill continued. “This all coming from the people who don’t even know how to define the word ‘woman.’”
The lawsuits come after the Biden administration earlier this month finalized rules governing Title IX enforcement, expanding the definition of sex to include claimed gender identities. Critics have slammed the new rules for what they see as the administration turning sex-specific civil rights protections on their heads and ensuring they’re “being used to harm women,” former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos told the Washington Examiner.
Both lawsuits note how the new rules would effectively prohibit sex-separate facilities such as restrooms, showers, and locker rooms, and could force “schools to accommodate the wishes of men claiming to identify as women (or ‘transgender’) to enter female-only spaces and join female-only organizations” at the threat of federal education funding, a press release from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office states.
“The consequences will be shocking and severe. Boys and girls will be forced to share bathrooms, locker rooms, and perhaps even lodging on overnight field trips with members of the opposite sex,” the lawsuit from the coalition of Louisiana, Mississippi, Idaho, and Montana said. “Adding insult to injury, they will be forced to use ‘preferred pronouns’ or else face punishment, which raises distinct Free Speech and Free Exercise problems. And that’s just the students. Consider parents who, for example, may never hear about the so-called ‘gender affirming’ counseling that their children receive because the Final Rule allowed a school to conceal that information.”
On top of the sex definitions issue, both lawsuits point out that the new rule undercut many of the due process protections for students accused of sexual misconduct on college campuses put in place by the Trump administration.
While the rule is set to take effect Aug. 1, many state education leaders have already taken steps to ensure their local districts do not implement the new rules, anticipating legal action. As the Washington Examiner reported, school chiefs in at least four states have directed districts to hold off on implementation.
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The lawsuits are asking the courts to block the final rule before it takes effect.
The Education Department did not return a request for comment from the Washington Examiner.