The Biden’s administration controversial Title IX guidance has been temporarily blocked by a federal judge over concerns that the federal Department of Education interfered with state enforcement of Title IX.
Politico reported that Eastern District of Tennessee Judge Charles Atchley ruled that federal agency guidance “directly interferes with and threatens Plaintiff States’ ability to continue enforcing their state laws.” Twenty Republican state attorney generals argued that the Title IX guidance created a “credible threat” of losing federal funds because of state policies and laws on Title IX enforcement. Atchley was appointed by former President Donald Trump.
The Biden administration tried to convince the judge to dismiss the lawsuit, which effort failed.
Biden’s Title IX guidance attempted to enshrine in federal regulations that protect transgender students in sports or athletic activities, which would override state laws which prohibit transgender male athletes from participating in female sports.
The suing states contended that the federal guidelines would force schools to use a transgender students’ preferred gender pronoun, which would violate First Amendment rights of other students and people. The states claimed that the Biden administration violated the Tenth Amendment of the Constitution that delegates some powers to the states and the Administrative Procedure Act, which act outlines the development and issuing of federal regulations for federal agencies like the Department of Education.
