The policy, which expands federal Title IX civil rights protections to LGBTQ+ students to provide what the Biden administration calls protections for LGBTQ+ students, was set to take hold in August but was temporarily blocked last Thursday by U.S. District Judge Terry A. Doughty.
Since 1972, Title IX has stated that no person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving federal financial assistance.
Biden's rule change redefines the word "sex" to include "gender identity."
"As a condition of receiving federal funds, all federally funded schools are obligated to comply with these final regulations, and we look forward to working with school communities all across the country to ensure the Title IX guarantee of nondiscrimination in school is every student's experience," a Biden spokesman said earlier this year.
But the change has encountered a swarm of legal challenges, and now, the Trump appointee has ruled it is an abuse of power and a "threat to democracy" – terminology those on the Left frequently use against Republicans and conservatives who question or challenge their initiatives.
"It's about time, honestly," responds attorney Sarah Parshall Perry of The Heritage Foundation. "The opinion from Judge Doughty … was spectacularly spot on."
The Education Department, which defended the rule, is reviewing the judge's order, but Perry does not see the need.
"When it comes to his legal analysis, [Judge Doughty] found that the rule was a violation of the First Amendment Free Speech Clause, its Free Exercise Clause," she relays. "It violated the Administrative Procedure Act; it was arbitrary and capricious."
Doughty's order blocks the rule in Louisiana, which filed a challenge to the rule in April, and in Mississippi, Montana, and Idaho, which joined the lawsuit.
This week, U.S. District Judge Danny C. Reeves dealt the rule another blow, referring to it as "arbitrary in the truest sense of the word" and granting a preliminary injunction against it in Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia.
Perry predicts other federal circuit courts will likewise throw the book at the Biden administration's terrible exercise of executive and regulatory authority.
