The U.S. House of Representatives narrowly passed a House Joint Resolution 165 last week to overturn the Biden administration’s rewrite of Title IX rules that infuses “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” protections into federal law. The Title IX overhaul by the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) attempts to force women to share private spaces, such as showers, restrooms, dorms, and locker rooms with gender-confused males in schools and universities receiving federal taxpayer dollars.
The House adopted the measure by a vote of 210-205 along party lines. The effort to pass the resolution invoked the Congressional Review Act, which allows Congress to review and reject federal rules. The resolution now heads to the Democrat-controlled Senate and would also be potentially subject to a White House veto. However, at the state level, at least 26 state attorneys general are challenging the rule in court. Since June, three U.S. district judges have blocked enforcement of the DOE’s Title IX rewrite across 14 states, such as Alaska, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, Ohio, Tennessee, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wyoming.
While Congress enacted Title IX in 1972 to provide equal opportunities for men and women in education and sports, the DOE published its new Title IX Final Rule April 29 expanding the law beyond what Congress initially approved. The DOE expanded the definition of “sex” to include “sexual orientation” and “gender identity” as protected categories against discrimination. The DOE rule would force schools receiving federal taxpayer money to allow gender-confused individuals to use spaces that correspond with their announced “gender identity,” join sex-specific organizations, and construe “harassment” as a person not using someone’s preferred pronouns.
The DOE rule also removes Trump-era protections that established due process rights regarding school sexual harassment laws. The rule erases previous Title IX requirements that required school officials to presume anyone accused of sexual harassment or assault as innocent until proven guilty and to use a legal standard based on “clear and convincing evidence” during proceedings. The new rule returns campus proceedings to using the “preponderance of the evidence” standard – the lowest standard of proof – to determine the validity of any allegations.
On the 50th anniversary of Title IX in June 2022, the DOE released its first draft of its new Final Rule and an additional draft in April 2023, both of which garnered almost a combined 400,000 public comments. Even though feedback was highly mixed, the 423-page Final Rule is supposed to take effect nationwide August 1, 2024.
Liberty Counsel Founder and Chairman Mat Staver said, “The radical rewrite of Title IX regulations destroys equal opportunity for women and girls while eradicating their privacy, safety, and fairness. The law is clear in its delineation between male and female, and it does not permit the erasure of women. This new version of Title IX must be stopped through Congress and the courts.”
