Five Republican-led states sue over Biden’s new Title IX transgender protections

Five Republican-led states have sued the Biden administration over its new rules that expand Title IX — a federal civil rights law that protects students from sex-based discrimination in federally funded schools — to protect transgender students.

A handful of Republican officials in other states have said publicly they would not enforce the new rules, but have stopped short of filing lawsuits.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a Republican, sued the Biden administration on Monday to block the rules, which will, in part, prohibit schools from banning transgender students and teachers from using school facilities and pronouns that align with their gender identities, among other policies. .

Paxton said the expanded rules mandate “conformity to radical gender ideology”.

“Texas will not allow Joe Biden to rewrite Title IX on a whim, destroying legal protections for women in favor of his radical obsession with gender ideology,” Paxton said in a statement. “This attempt to subvert federal law is clearly illegal, undemocratic and divorced from reality. Texas will always take the lead in opposing Biden’s extremist and destructive policies that put women at risk.”

Republican attorneys general in Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana and Idaho filed a separate lawsuit Monday arguing that the rule exceeds the Education Department’s authority, in part because it redefines sex to include gender identity.

“All of this is for a political agenda, ignoring significant safety concerns for young students in preschools, elementary schools, middle schools, high schools, colleges and universities throughout Louisiana and across the country,” said the attorney general from Louisiana, Liz Murrill. in a statement.

The Department of Education did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Top officials in Florida and Oklahoma announced they would reject the rules.

“Florida rejects Joe Biden’s attempt to rewrite Title IX,” the Republican governor said. Ron DeSantis said in a video on the social networks. “We will not comply and we will counterattack.”

Ryan Walters, Oklahoma superintendent of public instruction, said at a press conference on Thursday that the state is “pursuing all actions to oppose this illegal and unconstitutional measure by the Biden administration.”

“We have already instructed our districts not to comply with this illegal rule change from President Biden,” Walters said. “We will not allow boys to enter the women’s bathrooms. We will not allow boys to participate in girls’ sports.”

A growing number of states have passed laws targeting transgender students. In recent years, half of the states approved measures that prohibit trans students to play school sports on teams aligned with their gender identities, and 10 states have banned trans school employees and students from using bathrooms consistent with their gender identities in middle and high schools.

The new Title IX rules codify the Department of Education’s 2021 guidance that directed schools to interpret federal law to protect LGBTQ students from discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity. The guidance was a reversal of a Trump administration policy, reversing Obama-era guidance that directed schools to allow transgender students to use school facilities that align with their gender identities.

As of September 2021, 20 Republican-led states have sued, and as of July 2022 a federal judge temporarily blocked the Department of Education from enforcing the guidelines against these states.

The new guidance does not specifically address trans student participation in school sports, although Paxton and Walters were among the Republican officials who mentioned that issue in their statements. In April 2023, the Department of Education proposed a rule that would change Title IX to prohibit a blanket ban on trans students competing on sports teams that align with their gender identities, although the measure would allow for some restrictions on more elite levels of sports competition, like like high school and college. The department previously planned to launch this rule in March, but there were several delays.