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U.S. District Court Judge Danny Reeves found that the attempt to shoehorn transgender ideology into a statute governing women’s rights had such “significant constitutional infirmities” that he had no choice but to vacate the entire rule, effectively blocking its enforcement nationwide.
A federal court in eastern Kentucky has dealt a “death knell” to the Biden administration’s radical Title IX rewrite, an effort to expand the definition of biological sex to include gender identity at K-12 schools and higher education institutions.
Yesterday, U.S. District Court Judge Danny C. Reeves granted summary judgment in a challenge brought by the state of Tennessee and other plaintiffs, meaning that he found the rule to be so constitutionally and legally problematic based on just the most cursory examination that there was no reason for it to even go to trial. The plaintiffs in this case included nine other states, among them Virginia, Kentucky, and Ohio; the Christian Educators International Association; and a 15-year-old female student-athlete.
Reeves, who temporarily blocked the new Title IX rule last summer, found that the Biden administration’s effort to change the clear meaning and intent of the 50-year-old amendment to the Civil Rights Act is “unconstitutional,” “overly broad and vague,” and “arbitrary and capricious.” He also stated that the Department of Education had exceeded its statutory authority and violated the Spending Clause.
Judge Reeves noted that even though the plaintiffs only challenged parts of the new rule, “the definition of discrimination ‘on the basis of sex’ lies at the heart of Title IX and permeates virtually every provision of the law.”
As a result, he concluded, “the entire Final Rule and corresponding regulations are invalid and must be set aside.”
The decision completely vacates the rule nationwide, according to legal observers, including Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti, which means that the Department of Education is not allowed to enforce it anywhere, including in those states that had embraced the new guidance.
“This is a huge win for Tennessee, for common sense, and for women and girls across America,” said Skrmetti. “The court’s ruling is yet another repudiation of the Biden administration’s relentless push to impose a radical gender ideology through unconstitutional and illegal rulemaking.”
The issue came to the forefront on April 19, 2024, when the Biden administration released its overhaul of the 52-year-old civil rights law that protects female students against discrimination with the intent to extend those same protections to transgender students.
The rule’s 1,577 pages of guidance and regulations required schools to let students use the bathroom or locker room according to their gender identity and share overnight lodgings according to their gender identity, meaning that girls and women would be forced to share their private spaces, including bathrooms, dorms, showers, and hotel rooms, with biological males. Schools were also required to re-implement the Obama-era sexual harassment and assault investigative measures that subject those accused to university tribunals without basic due process protections. In addition, colleges were required to cover abortions in their student insurance plans.
The rule’s release immediately led to a flurry of legal challenges by 21 states, numerous schools, and several parent and student groups. By the time the rule was set to take effect on August 1, however, the courts had blocked it from taking effect in all 21 challenging states, as well as some school districts (even if they were located in a state that adhered to the new rules).
Last fall, the Supreme Court upheld the injunctions, even as the different cases made their way through the court system. The Tennessee challenge was the first one to actually be decided based on the merits of the case.
Those who had been fighting the rule in the courts celebrated Reeves’ ruling. Kristen Waggoner, CEO and general counsel for Alliance Defending Freedom, which joined many of the different suits on behalf of a number of school districts, parent and student organizations, and individual students, stated,
“This is a colossal win for women and girls across the country. The Biden administration’s radical attempt to redefine sex not only tossed fairness, safety, and privacy for female students out the window, it also threatened free speech and parental rights.”
The Department of Education can appeal the decision, but this is unlikely with a change in administrations scheduled in just 10 days.
When Congress passed Title IX in 1972, its intent was to protect girls and women from discrimination and ensure that they had the same athletic and educational opportunities as boys and men. The radical effort to somehow rewrite Title IX to include males who believe themselves to be female would have done nothing but destroy Title IX and all of its legal, physical, and privacy protections.
Setting aside all constitutional questions, this ruling recognizes that in a God-created and God-ordered world it’s not possible to turn delusions into reality — no matter how much demand there is for it or how many regulations are written trying to enforce it.
This judge’s ruling is a righteous one because it follows the created order. Men cannot become women because men and women are inherently different, a reality that was codified by Congress within Title IX.
Transgender proponents will, no doubt, continue their attempts to erase male-female distinctions, and there are all number of lawsuits and pieces of legislation attempting to fight against this movement. Many schools, for example, are still pushing LGBTQ ideology on children and hiding it from parents. There are state prisons in the most left-wing states that are placing violent male inmates in cells with women. And the ACLU and transgender advocates are challenging state laws designed to ban doctors from putting confused children through experimental treatments and surgeries and to ban male athletes from competing in women’s sports.
Nonetheless, Judge Reeves’ decision rejecting the government’s effort to fully codify gender confusion within America’s educational system likely marks the beginning of the end for the highly destructive transgender ideology. And for America’s children, vulnerable women, and female athletes, that ending can’t come soon enough.
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