Appeals court blocks Biden admin’s protections for trans students just after a judge allowed them

Just one day after a federal judge in Alabama blocked an attempt by Alabama, Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina to stop the enforcement of President Joe Biden’s Title IX expansions to protect LGBTQ+ people, an appeals court has blocked it.

A federal appeals court in Alabama said yes to the states’ administrative injunction request, stopping the expanded protections from being enforced.

Related:

Biden administration unveils new Title IX rules protecting trans students

Here’s why the rules don’t cover the hot-button issue of transgender student-athletes.

The ruling comes from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit in Atlanta, just one day after U.S. District Judge Annemarie Axon in Birmingham refused to block the Biden administration’s protections against queer students. Judge Axon wrote in her ruling, “Although Plaintiffs may dislike the Department’s rules, they have failed to show a substantial likelihood of success in proving the Department’s rulemaking was unreasonable or not reasonably explained.”

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With the latest ruling, the number of states where the enforcement of the new protections is temporarily blocked has increased to 26.

The Biden administration asked the Supreme Court to widen its enforcement and intervene in lawsuits by Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, Idaho, and numerous Louisiana school boards and another lawsuit by Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, Virginia, West Virginia, and an association of Christian educators. They wanted the Court to reinstate at least some of the protections that had been blocked, including those not related to transgender students, like protections for pregnant and parenting students. However, the Court did not heed their requests.

This means that the Department of Educaiton can enforce the rules, announced in April, in only 24 of the 50 states.

The new rules say that federal laws that ban discrimination “on the basis of sex” also apply to gender identity. Under the rules, harassing LGBTQ+ students, such as deadnaming or misgendering trans students, is a form of sex-based discrimination, which is banned under Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972. It also changes the procedures schools must use in investigating accusations of student misconduct.

Opponents want to restrict “the basis of sex” to biological sex and use the familiar and tired argument that protections for queer people, particularly trans people, somehow put women at risk.

“This is all for a political agenda, ignoring significant safety concerns for young women students in pre-schools, elementary schools, middle schools, high schools, colleges and universities across Louisiana and the entire country,” Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill said of the federal rule when she announced the state’s lawsuit.

A Department of Education spokesperson told Reuters that DOE officials “crafted the final Title IX regulations following a rigorous process to realize the nondiscrimination mandate of Title IX. The department stands by the final Title IX regulations released in April 2024, and we will continue to fight for every student.”

Other states that have blocked the protections are Alaska, Arkansas, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia and Wyoming.

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