Judge temporarily blocks Biden administration's transgender guidelines on Title IX
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A federal judge on Friday temporarily blocked the Biden administration's guidance on Title IX, which prohibits discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation, Politico reports.
Why it matters: Transgender participation in elite sports has been under attack, with Republican lawmakers advancing dozens of bills across the country as they seek to prohibit trans athletes from participating in school sports teams that align with their gender identity.
What they're saying: The Department of Education's guidance “directly interferes with and threatens Plaintiff States’ ability to continue enforcing their state laws," said Eastern District of Tennessee Judge Charles Atchley.
- States including Ohio, Iowa, Georgia, Kansas and Utah have all passed laws limiting transgender athletes from competing in sports.
Details: Twenty Republican attorneys general have argued their respective states face a “credible threat” of losing significant federal funding due to their policies and laws, per Politico.
- Forcing schools to use transgender students’ pronouns violates the First Amendment, the Republican coalition argued.
- They also argue that the guidance from the Education Department violates the 10th Amendment, which delegates certain powers to the states.
Flashback: The Department of Education proposed new changes to Title IX in June that would prohibit schools, colleges and universities from discriminating against transgender students.
- But Republicans argued in November that the department's guidance rewrote “the federal anti-discrimination laws they enforce" and "that’s not how lawmaking is supposed to work," per Politico.
- "States’ sovereign authority to enforce its own legal code was directly injured as a result," former Tennessee associate solicitor general Sarah Campbell said.
