Two federal judges in Texas have prevented the Biden administration from enforcing a series of protections for LGBTQ+ students included in Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972.
The judges, Matthew Kacsmaryk in Amarillo and Reed O'Connor in Fort Worth, cited a 2020 U.S. Supreme Court decision saying that a ban against sex discrimination in the workplace contained in a different law, Title VII, which covers gay and transgender workers. They said that Title VII does not govern Title IX.
The new regulations redefine sex discrimination and sex-based harassment to address misconduct stemming from sex stereotypes, pregnancy, gender identity, and sexual orientation.
"Title IX protects women in spaces that were historically reserved to men," wrote judge Kacsmaryk in his decision. "In stark contrast, the Final Rule inserts men into the very Title IX spaces statutorily reserved to women." He added that the rule would force Texas schools to stop separating bathrooms, locker rooms and other facilities based on biological sex.
Judge O'Connor, on his end, prevented the rule from going into effect in 11 schools located in Carroll Independent School District. "The Final Rule undermines over fifty years of progress for women and girls made possible by Title IX," O'Connor said.
Governor Greg Abbott had already directed the Texas Education Agency to disregard the rule in late April. "Congress wrote Title IX to protect women. Biden, with no authority to do so, rewrote Title IX to protect men who identify as women," Abbott said when discussing the issue.
In a public letter addressed to the White House, Abbott characterized the new regulations as an "abuse of authority" and vowed to "defend" the original law.
"Title IX was written by Congress to support the advancement of women academically and athletically. The law was based on the fundamental premise that there are only two sexes -male and female," he wrote.
"You (Biden) have rewritten Title IX to force schools to treat boys as if they were girls and to accept every student's self-declared gender identity. This ham-handed effort to impose a leftist belief onto Title IX exceeds your authority as President."
Judges in Kansas, Kentucky and Louisiana had already issued similar rulings, blocking the regulation in 14 other states.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has also sued the Biden administration over a series of LBGTQ+ workers protection. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has also targeted by the suit, which contests a guidance seeking to provide workplace accommodations to workers from this group.
Concretely, they make it unlawful workplace harassment to prevent actions such as allowing employees to use the bathroom of their gender identity. According to The Texas Tribune, the guidance isn't legally enforced and serves to distinguish what constitutes harassment under the EEOC.
Texas' lawsuit, however, argues that the guidance specifically targets the state because some employers don't have to comply with such federal policies. Paxton said that enforcing the guidance would lead Texas to reevaluate is agencies, causing "irreparable harm" to its finances and redefine "sex."
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