On Thursday, a federal judge in Louisiana stopped President Joe Biden’s administration from implementing a new rule that protects LGBTQ+ students from discrimination in four schools and universities based on their gender identity in four states.
US District Judge Terry Doughty issued a preliminary injunction in Monroe to prevent the implementation of a US Department of Education regulation that would have protected LGBTQ+ students against sex discrimination under Title IX in the Republic-led states of Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, and Idaho.
These states had maintained that schools would have to permit transgender students to use lockers, rooms, and restrooms that corresponded to their gender identification.
According to Doughty, a Republican appointed by former president Donald Trump, “enacting the changes in the final rule would subvert the original purpose of IX: protecting biological females from discrimination.”
The rule had been challenged in nine lawsuits by conservative activists and Republican-led states, who claim the rule amounts to an illegal rewrite of a law protecting women from discrimination in education by the Democratic president’s administration. This was the time a judge blocked the rule.
In a statement, Republican Attorney General Austin Knudsen of Montana stated, “This is a big win for women’s rights.” “This decision will protect young women and girls from dangerous situations, just as the Title IX has done for decades.”
A spokesman for the Education Department stated that while the regulation is being reviewed, it is still in place and will take effect on August 1.
When the department released the rule in April, it made it clear that discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity is also prohibited by Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, which prohibits sex-based discrimination in schools and universities that receive federal funding.
The government highlights a ruling from the US Supreme Court in 2020, which led to gay and transgender employees being protected from sex discrimination workplace in the workplace under Title VII, a separate legislation.
Because both Title VII and Title IX prohibit sex-based discrimination, courts frequently base their analysis of their analysis of their IX on interpretations of Title VII. However, Doughty concurred with the Republican state attorney general of Montana, Idaho, Louisiana, and Mississippi that the rule was inconsistent with Title IX’s text structure and purpose.”
According to Doughty, the rule requires schools to use students’ preferred pronouns and grant them access to restrooms and lockers based on their gender identity, a politically charged matter that the agency lacks the jurisdiction to handle.
He claimed that it also violated other constitutional provisions, such as the First Amendment’s guarantees of free speech and the right to exercise religion, and that it violated the Spending Clause of the United States Constitution due to its vague terms.
