Editor’s note: This story is developing and will be updated.
A federal judge on Thursday struck down the Biden administration’s Title IX rule nationwide, declaring that the regulations violated the Constitution.
The rule, released last April, offered protections for the first time for LGBTQI+ students and employees at federally funded schools and colleges, including by prohibiting discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation.
But the rule quickly drew legal challenges. Courts blocked the regulations from taking effect in at least 26 states before Thursday’s decision vacated the rule altogether.
President-elect Donald Trump had also criticized the rule, vowing to end the regulations’ protections based on sexual orientation and gender identity on “day one” of his second presidential term.
The ruling resulted from a challenge brought by several states. Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti, who was among those who challenged the rule, immediately praised the Thursday decision by the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky.
“The court’s ruling is yet another repudiation of the Biden administration’s relentless push to impose a radical gender ideology through unconstitutional and illegal rulemaking,” Skrmetti said in a statement. “Because the Biden rule is vacated altogether, President Trump will be free to take a fresh look at our Title IX regulations when he returns to office next week.”
In Thursday’s ruling, U.S. District Court Chief Judge Danny Reeves said expanding Title IX’s sex-based protections to include gender identity turns the federal law “on its head.”
“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,” wrote Reeves, a George W. Bush-era appointee.
Reeves also asserted that the Title IX rule violated the First Amendment by requiring teachers to use students’ preferred pronouns.
“The First Amendment does not permit the government to chill speech or compel affirmance of a belief with which the speaker disagrees in this manner,” Reeves wrote.
The states did not challenge some parts of the regulations, and the U.S. Department of Education had pushed for any rulings to affect only the contested points. But Reeves vacated the entire rule, which also included new requirements for how colleges respond to investigate sexual misconduct complaints. He wrote the contested provisions “fatally taint the entire rule.”
Influential conservative lawmakers lauded the decision.
“I am glad the court rejected the Biden-Harris administration’s attempt to rewrite Title IX, which would have undermined safety, freedom, and fairness for women," said Michigan Rep. Tim Walberg, the newly appointed chair of the House Committee on Education and Workforce.
Conservatives had frequently criticized the rules, arguing that they would allow transgender women to play on women sports teams. The now-vacated Title IX rule did not directly address athletics, and the Biden administration scrapped a separate regulatory proposal in December that would have extended Title IX protections to transgender athletes.
Thursday’s ruling delivered a blow to civil rights organizations, who supported the rule’s expanded protections for students.
“Today’s decision displays extraordinary disregard for students who are most vulnerable to discrimination and are in the most need for federal protections under the Title IX rule,” Fatima Goss Graves, president and CEO of the National Women’s Law Center, said in a Thursday statement.
