The U.S. Supreme Court, in a divided ruling, dealt a big blow to the Biden-Harris administration on Friday in a ruling that takes away, for now, a controversial policy priority of the White House. On Friday, the court ruled 5-4 to deny an emergency request from the Biden administration to enforce new Title IX guidelines that would have introduced additional benefits for transgender students.
If granted, the request would have permitted biological men to use women’s bathrooms, locker rooms, and dorms in 10 states where such access is currently banned by state lawmakers. The Biden administration announced these broad changes in April, asserting that Title IX’s prohibition of “sex” discrimination in schools includes discrimination based on gender identity, sexual orientation, and “pregnancy or related conditions.”
After the law took effect on August 1, over two dozen Republican attorneys general sued the administration, arguing that it would clash with state laws banning biological men from competing in women’s sports. The Biden administration contended that the new ruling would not impact athletics, but experts have provided evidence suggesting otherwise.
“On this limited record and in its emergency applications, the Government has not provided this Court a sufficient basis to disturb the lower courts’ interim conclusions that the three provisions found likely to be unlawful are intertwined with and affect other provisions of the rule,” the ruling said. Conservative Justice Neil Gorsuch joined his ideologically aligned colleagues in dissent and agreed with the court’s three liberal justices, arguing that the lower court rulings on the matter were too broad.
Earlier this week, 102 female athletes petitioned the Supreme Court to review a challenge to state laws banning biological men from competing in women’s sports. The petitioners cited biological strength differences that they argue make fair competition unachievable. “A growing number of women and girls have been facing the humiliating and damaging experience of being forced to compete against males who identify as transgender in the women’s sports category,” says the filing, per the Washington Times. “It is hard to express the pain, humiliation, frustration and shame women experience when they are forced to compete against males in sport. It is public shaming and suffering, an exclusion from women’s own category.”
Last month, a federal court in Kansas issued an injunction preventing the Biden administration’s Title IX regulations from being implemented in four states. The enforcement of these rules was subsequently halted in 14 states. U.S. District Judge John Broomes, a Trump appointee, ruled in favor of attorneys general in Kansas, Alaska, Utah, and Wyoming, after they argued that Title IX was meant to protect biological women from discrimination in education.
“The legislative history [of Title IX] supports a finding that the term ‘sex’ referred to biological sex,” Broomes wrote in his ruling. “One of the principal purposes of the statute was to root out discrimination against women in education. The legislative history shows that Congress was concerned about the unequal treatment between men and women for admissions opportunities, scholarships, and sports.”
Just the News added:
The lawsuit seeking the injunction was also filed on behalf of three private organizations: Moms for Liberty, Young America’s Foundation, and Female Athletes United. The injunction will also prohibit the new rules in schools that are attended by members of Young America’s Foundation and the children of Moms for Liberty members, across all 50 states.
“Gender ideology does not belong in public schools and we are glad the courts made the correct call to support parental rights,” Moms for Liberty founders Tiffany Justice and Tina Descovich said in a statement shared with Just The News. “We will always stand up for the rights of parents and the protection of children.” She added: “All parents must have their voices heard and their right to raise their own children is part of the very fabric of a free America. The federal government has no right to claim our children as their own or to push parents out of the classroom.”
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