The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals became the seventh court in the nation to temporarily block the Biden administration’s unconstitutional rewrite of Title IX raising the tally to 26 states that do not have to enforce it. The Eleventh Circuit order blocked the Title IX changes in Florida, Alabama, Georgia, and South Carolina, joining injunctions from six district court judges that halt the changes across 22 other states. Even though the Title IX changes took effect August 1 everywhere else, they do not apply in the 26 states that challenged the rewrite.
Title IX reformed education in 1972 to provide equal opportunities for men and women and to prevent sex discrimination. Biden’s new Title IX Final Rule infuses “gender identity” into the definition of “sex” and would apply sex discrimination protections to those who “identify” as the opposite gender. The rule would force women to share private spaces with gender-confused males while mandating the use of “preferred pronouns” in schools and colleges receiving federal dollars. The changes are meant to govern every K-12 school and higher education institution in the nation that accepts federal taxpayer funding.
So far, every state that has brought a legal challenge against the Title IX rewrite has earned an injunction against it. In large part, the legal challenges claim that the Biden administration has overstepped its authority by redefining “sex” and extending discrimination protections to gender-confused individuals – actions that both impede state sovereignty and usurps the role of Congress to define terms.
The Eleventh Circuit’s order overturned the only district-level judge to side with keeping the rule in place. On July 30, U.S. District Judge Annemarie Axon in Alabama declined a preliminary injunction for Florida and the three other states finding the Title IX changes “were in the zone of reasonableness.” However, she noted she may offer a “different” ruling later as the case progresses and legal arguments become more developed. The following day after her ruling, the Eleventh Circuit promptly issued its order preventing the Department of Education (DOE) from enforcing the Title IX changes in these four states while the case continues. The Eleventh Circuit did not explain in the order its rationale for overturning Judge Axon.
However, on the same day Judge Axon made her decision, a different district judge blocked the Title IX changes in Oklahoma. U.S. District Judge Jodi Dishman issued an injunction exempting schools in Oklahoma from removing protections for women and girls.
The “Final Rule elevates gender identity and its accompanying protections above that of biological sex—i.e., women,” wrote Judge Dishman. “Such a contradiction of Title IX’s text and an erosion of its purpose cannot be permitted absent congressional action.”
On July 24, U.S. District Judge Rodney Sippel in Missouri blocked the Title IX changes in six states finding that the First Amendment does not require the use of “preferred gender pronouns” and that the DOE exceeded its authority to expand the definition of sex-based harassment.
On July 2, U.S. District Judge John Broomes in Kansas found the new Title IX rule to be “arbitrary and capricious” and halted it in four additional states to protect female privacy.
“The Final Rule would, among other things, require schools to subordinate the fears, concerns, and privacy interests of biological women to the desires of [gender-confused] biological men to shower, dress, and share restroom facilities with their female peers,” wrote Judge Broomes. He also cited from an affidavit in the case where a girl student would avoid the bathrooms over boys using “gender identity” rules to go into female restrooms “because they knew they that they could get away with it.”
“Such fears by students, therefore, come from real and justified concerns,” wrote Judge Broomes.
On June 17, U.S. District Judge Danny Reeves in Kentucky, who barred the Title IX update in six other states, stated “[t]here are only two sexes: male and female,” and the result of inserting “subjective gender identity” into the educational environment is “not only impossible to square with Title IX” but also with “the broader protection of all students.”
Altogether, the Title IX Final Rule is blocked in Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wyoming.
Liberty Counsel Founder and Chairman Mat Staver said, “The radical rewrite of Title IX regulations strips privacy, safety, and fairness from women and girls in schools. These injunctions from seven different courts applying to 26 states confirm the Title IX rewrite is contrary to the law. The social experimentation in education must stop.”
