President Joe Biden‘s measures for protecting transgender students are on hold after a federal judge on Friday temporarily blocked enforcement of the Education Department’s Title IX guidance.
Judge Charles Atchley for the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee temporarily blocked the enforcement of two directives by the administration that aimed to protect LGBT people in schools and workplaces from discrimination.
The directives offer protections from discrimination based on gender and sexual orientation and would have extended protections for transgender people to use locker rooms and bathrooms in schools, as well as join sports teams that correspond to their gender identity.
However, such directives were temporarily halted after Atchley ruled in favor of 20 state attorneys general who sued and claimed the guidance infringes upon states’ rights, a case led by Republican Tennessee Attorney General Herbert Slatery.
EDUCATION DEPARTMENT ROLLS BACK DEVOS-ERA TITLE IX REGULATION
“As it currently stands, plaintiffs must choose between the threat of legal consequences — enforcement action, civil penalties, and the withholding of federal funding — or altering their state laws to ensure compliance with the guidance and avoid such adverse action,” wrote Atchley, an appointee of former President Donald Trump.
Defendants in the case, which include the Education Department, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and the Justice Department, argued the court should have dismissed the lawsuit, though Atchley denied the request.
Sarah Campbell, the former Tennessee associate solicitor general, argued the case in November on behalf of the 20 states, saying the Education Department rewrote “the federal anti-discrimination laws they enforce.”
Now, Campbell sits on the Tennessee Supreme Court.
Campbell rejected the Biden administration’s decision to craft its guidance around the landmark Supreme Court case Bostock v. Clayton County, which says it is unlawful to discriminate against people based on their gender identity or sexual orientation in the workplace, contending the opinion in the case has no bearing on Title IX, nor access to bathrooms or locker rooms.
The Education Department disagrees. Its guidance last year concluded that because Title IX, which bars sex bias in federally funded educational programs, borrowed language from Title VII, Bostock also applied to educational institutions.
“Defendants’ guidance directly interferes with and threatens Plaintiff States’ ability to continue enforcing their state laws,” Atchley wrote.
“We are disappointed in this decision, but we remain committed to protecting students and school communities from discrimination and will continue to do so to deliver on the promise of Title IX,” a spokesperson for the Education Department told the Washington Examiner, vowing the Justice Department will “continue to litigate this matter on our behalf.”
Oklahoma Attorney General John O’Connor, one of the plaintiffs, penned a statement on Saturday calling Atchley’s order “a major victory for women’s sports and for the privacy and safety of girls and women in their school bathrooms and locker rooms.”
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The Education Department published its Title IX proposed rule last month, which would codify its guidance for protecting transgender students upon finalization. A comment period for the rule will be available through September.
A respective policy decision for sports eligibility is expected at a later date, though a timeline for the process has not been set up.
The Washington Examiner contacted the White House.
