On Monday June 10, 2024, a federal judge in Lexington heard arguments in Kentucky’s and Tennesseee’s effort to halt the Biden Administration’s harmful and unlawful proposed changes to Title IX.
If the changes are not halted before August 1, public K-12 schools and universities would be forced to open girls’ locker rooms, restrooms, and sports to biological males even if state law mandates the opposite. Entities that refuse to comply with the proposed regulation would be at risk of losing federal funding.
In the motion for a stay on the regulations, the Kentucky Attorney General’s Office argued that failure to stop the regulations from going into effect would lead to “irremediable harms.” “Students of both sexes would experience violations of their bodily privacy by students of a different sex.” “And elimination of female sports resulting from the Final Rule would cause female athletes to face unfair and unsafe competition.”
If the judge grants the stay, then the Biden Administration’s Title IX regulations would not go into effect until after the courts consider the legal challenge to them.
In a statement released after the hearing, Attorney General Russell Coleman stated, “Today, we are in court to protect Kentucky women and girls and their opportunities to succeed. The Biden Administration’s assault on Title IX would end 50 years of protections and fairness.”
In a similar lawsuit brought by the Texas Attorney General, a Texas judge recently ruled in favor of Texas’s challenge to the Biden Administration’s attempt to change its interpretation of Title IX to include protections for gender identity and sexual orientation. The judge decided that the proposed reinterpretation “would be to functionally rewrite Title IX in a way that shockingly transforms American education.” However, this ruling does not affect the Biden Administration’s proposed Title IX regulations.
Additionally, Representative Mary Miller of Illinois recently introduced legislation to overturn the Biden Administration’s proposed Title IX rules. The bill currently has 68 Republican co-sponsors in the U.S. House.
We are thankful for Kentucky Attorney General Coleman, Tennessee Attorney General Skrmetti, Texas Attorney General Paxton, Illinois Representative Miller, and everyone else who has taken a lead in fighting back against the Biden Administration’s radical attempt to invade women’s sports and spaces. We pray that the judge quickly agrees to halt the proposed Title IX regulations before they go into effect.
