Biden’s new anti-discrimination rules protecting trans students in red states blocked by Supreme Court
August 21, 2024On Friday, the Supreme Court announced that it has declined an appeal from the Biden administration and opted not to lift court orders in 26 conservative states that prevented the implementation of new Education Department rules aimed at extending anti-discrimination protections to trans students. The vote was 5 to 4, according to ‘Los AngelesTimes’.
This decision indicates that the federal education law known as Title IX will prohibit schools and colleges in half of the country from discriminating against students based on their sexual orientation or gender identity, while not extending those protections in the remaining states.
Last month, Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar requested the court to allow the rules to be enacted nationwide, except for certain contested provisions, including one that mandates schools to permit transgender students to use bathrooms aligned with their gender identity.
However, in an unsigned order, the court denied her appeal on Friday.
Image Credit: Canva
The justices in the majority expressed that they found no justification to overturn the lower court decisions and to temporarily allow the rule to take effect nationwide while litigation continues.
Conservative Justice Neil M. Gorsuch dissented alongside liberal Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson, arguing that the lower courts had made a mistake in halting the antidiscrimination rules from being enacted across all states.
The new rules enforcing Title IX were set to be implemented nationwide on August 1.
The law from 1972 specifies that schools and colleges receiving federal funding cannot discriminate “on the basis of sex.” The new rules, released in late April, clarify this definition to prohibit “discrimination on the basis of sex stereotypes, sex characteristics, pregnancy or related conditions, sexual orientation, and gender identity.”
The administration based its stance on the Supreme Court’s ruling four years ago, authored by Gorsuch, which established that the federal civil rights law against job discrimination based on sex also safeguards transgender employees.
It is important to note that the new rules do not pertain to school sports and athletic events, with the Education Department indicating that these matters will be addressed in a separate regulation.
The most contentious provision in the new rules states that a school is considered to discriminate on the basis of sex if it bars students from using a restroom or locker room that aligns with their gender identity.
Republican state attorneys have taken legal action to prevent the rules from taking effect.
Louisiana Attorney General Elizabeth Murrill stated that the administration had taken “Title IX and its promise of equal educational opportunities for both sexes and transformed it into a 423-page mandate that (among other things) allows boys in girls’ bathrooms, locker rooms, and hotel rooms and requires teachers and students to use a person’s preferred pronouns.”
She initiated a lawsuit and secured a court order from a federal judge that stopped the new rules from being enforced in her state and three others.
“The text of Title IX shows it was intended to prevent biological women from being discriminated against in education in favor of biological men,” remarked U.S. District Judge Terry Doughty in Monroe, La. He asserted that the Education Department lacked the authority to broaden the law’s interpretation.
In total, six federal judges have blocked the new rules in 26 states, with three U.S.A. appeals courts upholding those preliminary orders.
The new antidiscrimination rules will remain in effect in California and other blue states. Previously, California Attorney General Rob Bonta and his counterparts from 14 other Democratic states had urged the Louisiana judge to maintain the broader antidiscrimination regulations.
The Supreme Court has yet to directly address this issue, but the justices have agreed to review in their next term whether states may prohibit the use of hormones and other gender-affirming care for transgender teens.
For a decade, Republicans and Democrats have been divided over the extension of antidiscrimination rules to trans students.
The Trump administration refused to broaden the discrimination rules under Title IX, whereas President Biden promised to do so once in office.
In March 2021, he issued an executive order pledging to “guarantee an educational environment free from discrimination on the basis of sex, including sexual orientation or gender identity.” He directed the Education Department to establish new Title IX rules “as soon as practicable.”
However, it wasn’t until April of this year that the final rules were released.
In May, former President Trump stated he would repeal these rules if he were to be re-elected.
“We’re going to end it on Day One,” Trump declared during a talk radio show. “Don’t forget, that was done as an order from the president. That came down as an executive order. And we’re going to change it — on Day One it’s going to be changed.”
Read related myGwork articles here:
Biden’s Title IX law expanding protections for LGBTQ+ students is dealt another setback
Biden’s New Title IX Rules Add Campus Protections for LGBTQ+ Students
Trump vows to reverse Biden protections for trans students “on day one”
U.S.A.: Biden campaign targeting LGBTQ+ voters in new ‘Out for Biden-Harris’ initiative
Keep up to date with the latest myGnews