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Biden administration rule protecting LGBT students blocked in 26 states
Aug 1 - A new federal rule
protecting LGBT students from discrimination in schools and
colleges based on gender identity that took effect on
Thursday remained blocked in 26 states after the U.S.
Supreme Court did not act on requests by President Joe
Biden's administration to widen its enforcement.
The justices have yet to
act on the administration's requests to partially lift lower
court injunctions blocking the rule in 10 Republican-led
states that had challenged it, while litigation continues.
The complex legal
landscape means that the U.S. Education Department can
enforce the rule, announced in April, in 24 of the 50
states. The rule expands protections under Title IX of
the Education Amendments of 1972, a federal law that
bars sex discrimination in federally funded education
programs.
A spokesperson for the
Education Department said officials "crafted the final
Title IX regulations following a rigorous process to
realize the non-discrimination 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."
Biden's
administration had asked the Supreme Court to
intervene in a lawsuit 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.
The administration
sought to restore in those states a key provision
clarifying that discrimination "on the basis of sex"
encompasses sexual orientation and gender identity,
as well as the rule's numerous other provisions that
do not address gender identity.
The states and the other plaintiffs have said the rule forces schools to allow transgender students to use restrooms and locker rooms, and faculty to use pronouns for transgender students, that correspond to their gender identities. The plaintiffs have argued that the Democratic president's administration has unlawfully rewritten a law designed more than a half century ago to protect women from discrimination in education.
"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.
Numerous lawsuits
successfully blocked the law in 22 states - nearly
all Republican-governed. While the
administration scored a victory on Tuesday when a
federal judge refused to block the rule in Alabama,
Florida, South Carolina and Georgia, the
Atlanta-based 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals
temporarily halted the rule on Wednesday in those
states pending its review of the litigation.
The rule makes
numerous changes to regulations combating sex
discrimination under Title IX, including by covering
LGBT individuals as well as strengthening
protections for pregnant students, parents and
guardians.
The administration
has said that protecting LGBT students under Title
IX is a "straightforward application" of the Supreme
Court's landmark 2020 ruling that a similar law
known as Title VII barring workplace discrimination
protects gay and transgender employees.
The Supreme Court
is reviewing decisions by U.S. District Judge Terry
Doughty in Louisiana and U.S. District Judge Danny
Reeves in Kentucky. They both concluded that Title
IX's reference to sex relates only to "biological"
males and females, and that the Supreme Court's 2020
ruling did not apply in this context.
In June, the
Supreme Court agreed to hear another case from
Tennessee involving a Republican-backed ban on
gender-affirming medical care for transgender
minors. The court will hear the case in its next
term, which begins in October.
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