A U.S. district court in Texas has blocked the Biden administration’s changes to Title IX rules, which aimed to introduce transgender policies in public schools. This ruling is a win for Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who argued that the changes would have required Texas schools to let biological males use women’s restrooms, locker rooms, and other sex-specific spaces.
“Joe Biden’s illegal attempt to use Title IX for his radical agenda has been halted,” said Paxton. “Threatening to cut education funding by forcing states to adopt ‘transgender’ policies that endanger women was clearly illegal. Texas has succeeded for the entire nation.”
District Judge Reed O’Connor, who authored the court’s opinion, stated that the Biden administration bypassed proper procedures and attempted to rewrite Title IX in a way that dramatically changes American education and takes authority away from Congress.
“That is not how our democratic system functions,” O’Connor added, reminding the Biden administration of the correct legal process.
The court also found that the new rules put public school officials in a difficult position because following them would violate Texas state law.
The court dismissed the rules as “void ab initio,” meaning they were invalid from the start due to the Biden administration’s overreach. Typically, invalid rules might be sent back for revisions, but the court found the administration’s actions had such severe issues they couldn’t be corrected.
“Rather than promote equal opportunity, dignity, and respect that Title IX demands for both biological sexes, [the Biden administration’s] Guidance Documents do the opposite, advancing an agenda disconnected from the text, structure, and context of Title IX,” the court opinion stated.
The court decided to vacate the rules and revert to the existing Title IX status, which does not include the new transgender policies.
This order follows Texas’s lawsuit against the Biden administration in June 2023. The lawsuit aimed to block the administration’s transgender guidance issued to the Department of Education.
The lawsuit claimed the administration was trying to “radically transform educational institutions” with its Title IX changes. “Equating ‘sex’ with ‘gender identity’ or ‘transgender status’ for purposes of Title IX would significantly affect living facilities, locker rooms, showers, and bathrooms in schools nationwide, impacting students from kindergarten through post-graduate levels,” the lawsuit explained.
The Biden administration’s rules would have expanded sex-based discrimination protections to include “sexual orientation” and “gender identity.” This included investigating and potentially withdrawing federal funds from schools that restrict sex-protected spaces and activities, such as bathrooms and sports teams, to biological females. The administration refers to this as “sex stereotyping.”
