By Tyler Arnold
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jan 9, 2025 / 13:45 pm
A Department of Education rule to ban discrimination against a person’s self-asserted “gender identity” in K–12 schools and colleges was blocked nationwide by a federal court in Kentucky on Thursday, Jan. 9.
The court’s decision to strike down the rule is being hailed as a major victory by opponents of the regulation. With President-elect Donald Trump heading into office in less than two weeks, an appeal from the federal government is highly unlikely, essentially rendering the rule dead.
The rule, implemented by President Joe Biden’s administration, reinterprets the Title IX ban on “sex” discrimination to include a ban on “gender identity” discrimination even though the phrase “gender identity” does not appear anywhere in the 1972 law.
Judge Danny C. Reeves of the District Court of the Eastern District of Kentucky ruled that the department “exceeded its statutory authority” in implementing the rule and found that the rule itself violates the United States Constitution because it would “chill speech” related to gender ideology and because it is “vague and overbroad” in how it is written.
The lawsuit against the Biden administration’s Title IX rule change was brought by attorneys general in six states: West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Indiana, Ohio, and Virginia. State officials warned the rule would override state laws that separate athletics, bathrooms, locker rooms, and dormitories on the basis of biological sex.
“This is a victory not only for the rule of law, but also for common sense and the safety of every student,” West Virginia Attorney General and Governor-elect Patrick Morrisey said in a statement.
“The Biden administration’s Title IX revisions would have ended sex-based protections for biological women in all aspects of education, and this would have marked a retreat from the progress women have made,” he added.
Reeves wrote in his ruling that the Title IX prohibition on sex discrimination is “abundantly clear” that the law refers to discrimination “on the basis of being male or female.” He wrote that “there is nothing in the text or statutory design of Title IX to suggest that discrimination ‘on the basis of sex’ means anything other than it has since Title IX’s inception.”
“The entire point of Title IX is to prevent discrimination based on sex — throwing gender identity into the mix eviscerates the statute and renders it largely meaningless,” the court order read.
According to Reeves, if the department interpreted Title IX’s ban on sex-based harassment to include “gender identity,” it would “chill speech or compel affirmance of a belief with which the speaker disagrees” in regard to speech related to the use of certain pronouns or about other aspects of gender ideology. He found that this violates the First Amendment’s guarantee of freedom of speech.
“The plaintiffs reasonably fear that teachers’ (and others’) speech concerning gender issues or their failure to use gender-identity-based pronouns would constitute harassment under the final rule,” the court order read.
Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) President and General Counsel Kristen Waggoner called the court order “a colossal win for women and girls across the country” in a statement. ADF is representing a West Virginia high-school female athlete and Christian Educators Association International in the lawsuit.
“This ruling provides enormous relief for students across the country, including our client who has already suffered harassment by a male student in the locker room and on her sports team,” Waggoner said.
Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti called the court order a “massive win for [Tennessee] and the country” in a post on X.
“The court’s order is [a] resounding victory for the protection of girls’ privacy in locker rooms and showers, and for the freedom to speak biologically-accurate pronouns,” he said.
Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares wrote in a post on X: “All of America is now safe from Biden’s attempt to undermine half a century of landmark protections for women.”
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Prior to this ruling, the enforcement of the Biden administration’s Title IX rule was already halted in more than half of the country. Numerous state attorneys general and athletic associations had challenged the rule across the country.
Trump has promised to reverse the Biden administration’s promotion of gender ideology in federal regulations, vowing to “stop the transgender lunacy” on his first day in office.
