Gov. Spencer Cox (R-UT) has called the state legislature into special session as lawmakers weigh the conflict between the Biden administration’s new Title IX regulations and Utah law.
“The Legislature is ready and willing to conduct the business of the people,” Utah Senate President J. Stuart Adams and House Speaker Mike Schultz told the Washington Examiner in a statement. “We thank Governor Cox for his leadership and collaboration and look forward to convening in a special session to address a handful of issues that demand our immediate attention. By working proactively, Utah will continue to be the best-managed state in the nation.”
A spokeswoman for the Utah House of Representatives Minority Caucus said the House would consider a resolution “directing government officers to comply with Utah laws where there is a conflict with the new [Title IX] regulations” and another declaring “Utah has the sovereign authority and responsibility to safeguard the state’s health, safety, and welfare of, and to promote the prosperity of Utah residents and that the federal government’s overreach in regard to the new [Title IX] regulations.”
The legislature will convene for the special session at 4 p.m. Wednesday.
Utah lawmakers say the state’s Sex-based Designations for Privacy, Anti-bullying, and Women’s Opportunities law, which went into effect in January, is threatened by the federal government’s redefinition of sex. In April, the Department of Education released updated Title IX regulations that changed the definition of sex to include gender identity and sexual orientation. The new regulations, effective Aug. 1, will require Utah to give students who identify as transgender access to the restroom of their choice. However, Utah’s law requires K-12 students to use public school restrooms that match their biological sex, putting the state at odds with the federal government.
Utah State Board of Education Chairman Jim Moss said Utah schools are concerned about Title IX’s effect on their communities.
“There’s state law that very clearly says, ‘Do this in order to protect girls in separate space facilities,’ and there’s federal law that says, ‘You can’t do that,’” Moss told the legislature’s Federalism Commission on Tuesday.
Moss said the state school board unanimously urged state lawmakers to avoid the regulations by applying the Utah Constitutional Sovereignty Act.
“I was very grateful for the unanimous decision,” Federalism Commission House Chairman Keven Stratton said, “because I know there’s a broad spectrum of ideological perspectives on the board.”
The act allows the legislature to “prohibit a government officer from enforcing or assisting in the enforcement of the federal directive within the state if it violates the principle of state sovereignty … or a right reserved to the state by the 10th Amendment or in order to provide for the health, safety, and welfare and promote the prosperity of the state’s inhabitants.”
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The legislature’s special session comes in addition to a lawsuit Utah, along with three other states, filed to challenge the Biden administration’s redefinition of sex last month.
“It forces both boys and girls, in their most formative years, to sacrifice their privacy in personal spaces such as restrooms, locker rooms, and even overnight accommodations,” the lawsuit reads. “It takes an explicit state function (the creation and administration of public schools) and warps it by conditioning federal education funding on schools violating the constitutional rights of their students and employees.”