A fourth federal judge has blocked the Biden administration’s final rule adding “gender identity” to Title IX, extending the moratorium on the federal law rewrite to another six states.
U.S. District Judge Rodney Sippel granted a preliminary injunction Wednesday preventing the Title IX rule from taking effect in Missouri, Arkansas, Iowa, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota, pending the outcome of the lawsuit.
The order brings to 20 the number of states shielded from the regulations taking effect Aug. 1 across the rest of the nation.
“This is a huge win for women and girls across the country,” said Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey, who led the lawsuit. “The Court recognized that Joe Biden’s plan to allow biological males into female spaces was not only blatantly illegal, but also a slap in the face to every woman in America.”
Judge Sippel, a Clinton appointee, said the states have “a fair chance of prevailing on their argument that the unambiguous plain language of Title IX and the legislative history support their position that the term ‘sex’ means biological sex,” as opposed to gender identity.
The ruling means that the Biden administration is now 0 for 4 in defending its Title IX update against lawsuits filed in federal district courts by coalitions of Republican-led states.
In addition, two federal appeals courts — the 5th and 6th Circuit Courts of Appeals — have in the last week denied the Biden administration’s motions to set aside the lower-court injunctions.
The Department of Education rule unveiled in April requires education programs that receive federal money, including K-12 schools, colleges and universities, to include males who identify as female under Title IX, the 1972 civil rights law that bans sex discrimination in education.
“As the father of a young daughter, I take this fight personally,” Mr. Bailey said. “My office will continue to fight for the preservation of women and girls, who have a right to thrive without fear of being erased by a radical transgender ideology.”
In defending its rewrite, the Education Department leaned heavily on the Supreme Court’s 2020 decision in Bostock v. Clayton County, which ruled that Title VII prohibits discrimination based on gender identity in the workplace.
So far, however, that argument has fallen flat with the courts.
“Although Title IX also prohibits sex discrimination, the Supreme Court has said that ‘Title VII is a vastly different statute from Title IX,’” Judge Sippel said in the 56-page ruling.
The other states covered by temporary injunctions are Kansas, Alaska, Utah and Wyoming, which sued in federal court in Kansas; Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana and Idaho, which sued in federal court in Louisiana, and Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia, which sued in federal court in Kentucky.
The federal judge in Kansas also blocked the Title IX rule from being enforced by schools attended by children whose parents belong to Moms for Liberty, or students who are members of Young America’s Foundation or Female Athletes United. Those groups were also plaintiffs in the Kansas case.
In addition, a federal judge blocked temporarily the Title IX rule from being enforced in the Carroll Independent School District in Southlake, Texas.
The department said its Title IX update would “promote educational equity and opportunity for students across the country as well as accountability and fairness, while empowering and supporting students and families.”
The department has introduced a separate rulemaking on transgender eligibility in girls’ and women’s sports, which is expected to be finalized after the November election.
• Valerie Richardson can be reached at vrichardson@washingtontimes.com.