Yet another federal judge, this time in Kansas, has blocked the Biden administration’s sweeping Title IX changes that force federally funded schools to allow biological boys and men on girls’ and women’s sports teams, as well as in their changing and restroom facilities.
The administration’s unilateral changes in the 1972 civil rights law also would force schools’ staff and students to adhere to transgender students’ preferred pronouns.
The new ruling from U.S. District Judge John W. Broomes in Wichita is now the law in the U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals’ states of Kansas, Utah, Wyoming and Alaska.
The Biden changes are now blocked in a total of 14 states, following similar rulings in other federal appellate districts.
Tuesday’s ruling in Kansas is broader, however, in that it may affect students in all states: Because the lawsuit filed by Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach was also filed on behalf of several private organizations – including Moms For Liberty and Young America’s Foundation – students of their members also are included in the injunction, wherever they live.
“If a single member of Moms for Liberty, Young America’s Foundation, or Female Athletes United has students in any school in any state, that school is prohibited from complying with Biden’s Title IX rule,” Kobach’s office announced in a press release.
“The organizations have until July 15 to notify the court which schools across the nation are affected.”
In other words, if you’re a member of either of those three organizations before July 15, your school or your child’s school — anywhere in the U.S. — is exempted from having to comply with Biden’s Title IX changes (as are all schools in the four states above).
If you’re joining one of those three organizations before July 15, Kobach tells The Heartlander, “be very clear, in filling out the form online, which school you’re talking about.” Your identity will be kept confidential, even from the Department of Justice, in the continuing civil case, he says.
For those states and students not protected by an injunction, Biden’s Title IX rule takes effect Aug. 1. In those cases, the Biden administration is outlawing single-sex bathrooms and locker rooms, as noted by JustTheNews.com.
Kobach warns that Biden’s regulation “would have made it harassment, and a basis for expelling a person from college or high school, if you repeatedly misgendered somebody or if you made a comment something like ‘there are only two sexes.’ That would have been considered harassment and a basis for punishing or expelling the student.”
The Kansas judge also agreed with Kobach that the unilateral Biden Title IX rule change “violates the spending clause of the United States Constitution” by putting conditions on federal money that neither the Congress nor state legislatures had agreed to.
“There are two sexes: male and female,” wrote U.S. District Judge Danny Reeves of Kentucky, in issuing an injunction in the 6th Circuit. The judge called the Biden rules “arbitrary and capricious,” arguing they “dramatically alter the purpose and meaning” of Title IX.
The other injunction was issued by U.S. District Judge Terry Doughty of Louisiana, in the 5th Circuit.
Kobach also notes that the rules infringe on Americans’ First Amendment rights by compelling speech – including the usage of biologically inaccurate pronouns – that violate religious conscience.
“We have had many wins in court,” Kobach said in his press release, “but to me, this is the biggest one yet. It protects girls and women across the country from having their privacy rights and safety violated in bathrooms and locker rooms and from having their freedom of speech violated if they say there are only two sexes.”
Judge Broomes writes in his order:
“The Department of Education’s reinterpretation of Title IX to place gender identity on equal footing with (or in some instances arguably stronger footing than) biological sex would subvert Congress’ goals of protecting biological women in education.
“The Final Rule would, among other things, require schools to subordinate the fears, concerns, and privacy interests of biological women to the desires of transgender biological men to shower, dress, and share restroom facilities with their female peers.”
Biden’s rules also violate the free speech rights of public-school staff by mandating what they must and must not say regarding gender, Reeves ruled in his order.
Kobach says the injunction he won Tuesday merely allows schools covered by it to ignore Biden’s Title IX dictate. The schools technically have the option to go along with it if they choose, but Kobach noted that about half the states in the country already have their own laws forbidding cross-sex sports and facilities.
