KY federal judge blocks Biden-era Title IX changes to protect LGBT students from taking effect

A federal judge in Kentucky has struck down the Biden administration’s expanded Title IX regulations nationwide, siding with the state’s attorney general who contested the federal rule change last year that broadened the definition of sex-based discrimination to include protections for LGBTQ+ people.

On Thursday, Chief Judge Danny Reeves for the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky reaffirmed his earlier preliminary injunction to more permanently block the implementation of the Biden Administration’s expanded Title IX rules across the country.

The ruling originated from a case brought by Republican Attorney General Russell Coleman and five other GOP attorneys general last year.

Ratified in 1972, Title IX bans sex-based harassment and discrimination against students and employees in federally funded education settings, including in public K-12 schools, colleges and universities and associated athletics.

The Biden administration’s proposed rule changes extended the law’s application to prohibit discrimination and harassment based on gender identity, sexual orientation and sex characteristics.

The new rules are a way to “build on the legacy of Title IX by clarifying that all our nation’s students can access schools that are safe, welcoming and respect their rights,” U.S Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona said in April.

But Republicans have argued the law, which protects against sex-based discrimination, should not also apply to transgender individuals. They contend it should apply only to “biological” sex and the new rule “fundamentally alters the meaning of Title IX’s bar on sex discrimination,” their original complaint said.

Reeves in his ruling agreed, calling the new Title IX rules “arbitrary and capricious,” as well as “unlawful.”

He added that schools in states that sued “need not comply” with the new federal standards to receive federal funding.

The federal department “exceeded” its rule-making authority by expanding the meaning of “’on the basis of sex’ to include ‘gender identity,’” which Reeves said “turns Title IX on its head.”

“While Title IX sought to level the playing field between men and women, it is rife with exceptions that allow males and females to be separated based on the enduring physical differences between the sexes,” Reeves said.

“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.”

It’s a major blow to the Biden administration, whose proposed changes had already been blocked from enforcement in 26 states after a deluge of legal challenges from GOP-controlled states.

Coleman said on Thursday, “as a parent and as attorney general I joined this effort to protect our women. Today’s ruling solidifies the 50-plus years of educational opportunities Title IX has created for students and athletes once and for all.”

Tennessee Republican Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti, one of the AGs who co-sued over the regulatory changes, also praised the decision on X as a “resounding victory for the protection of girls’ privacy in locker rooms and showers, and for the freedom to speak biologically accurate pronouns.”

Last April, Coleman joined GOP attorney generals in Ohio, Virginia, West Virginia, Tennessee and Indiana in filing a joint 83-page lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky.

The argument: The new federal policy changes would interfere with “practices to protect student privacy, perversely hamper fair competition in women’s sports, and punish states for following their laws.”

Coleman at the time said the regulatory overhaul would “rip away 50 years of Title IX’s protections for women and put entire generations of young girls at risk.”

After Reeves upheld the request from Coleman and the other attorneys general and temporarily blocked the law from being enforced in those six states, they asked for summary judgment — when a court rules summarily in a case without a full trial.

That’s the judgment Reeves handed down on Thursday, which is subject to appeal.

While the expanded regulations provide hefty protections for LGBTQ individuals, the new Title IX doesn’t mention sports teams. A second proposed rule from the U.S. Department of Education deals with sex-related eligibility for male and female sports teams.

Many of the same state leaders and lawmakers who oppose the Title IX changes are proponents of state laws passed to keep transgender students out of school restrooms that correspond with their gender identity, as well as bans preventing trans girls from playing on girls’ school sports teams — laws Kentucky passed over Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear’s vetoes in 2022 and 2023.

State Senate Majority Caucus Chair Robby Mills, R-Henderson, lead sponsor of the law banning trans girls from competing on middle- and high-school girls’ sports teams, praised Reeve’s ruling Thursday, saying it “ensures that women and girls can continue to compete on a level playing field, preserving the integrity of women’s sports across the nation and protecting the equal opportunity that Title IX has long stood for.”

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