New federal court rulings narrow the Biden administration’s application of a rule to protect LGBTQ students from discrimination, allowing critics to further limit it to schools.
In Missouri, a federal judge blocked the law the rule Six additional states brought the total to 21. Wednesday’s ruling by President Bill Clinton’s top U.S. District Judge Rodney Sipple applies to Arkansas, Iowa, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota. It’s only a week before the rule goes into effect.
Sipple’s ruling was upheld last week by U.S. District Judge John Broomes, who blocked enforcement with students or parents who are members of three groups opposing the rule in Kansas, that state, Alaska, Utah and Wyoming, as well as at individual U.S. schools and colleges. was given. . Broomes, an appointee of President Donald Trump, gave a group called Mothers for Freedom an extra week – until Friday – to submit a list of affected schools, and then said the group could include members who joined. original July 2 order.
Republican officials seeking to roll back transgender rights hailed Sipple’s decision as a victory for cisgender girls and women, and cast the issue as protecting their privacy and safety in bathrooms and locker rooms. They also argued the rule is the trick to allow transgender women to play on girls’ and women’s sports teams, but Sipple said that would not apply to athletics.
“Once again, a federal court has stopped the Biden-Harris administration from going around Congress to implement its ridiculous, nonsensical and illegal election year action,” Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffith said in a statement. “And this comes just before the start of the new school year.”
Mothers for Freedom filed a lawsuit against Broomes earlier this month, saying its members have students in tens of thousands of schools across the U.S., many of which support the rule in Democratic-led states. Also, judges in Alabama and Oklahoma have yet to rule on lawsuits filed by those states and Florida, Georgia and South Carolina.
Three groups already involved in the Kansas case presented the lists About 1,100 schools and colleges in the United States were affected by Broomes’ order. The AP analysis shows that 69% are outside the 21 states where enforcement is already blocked.
The Education Department did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment on the latest rulings Thursday, but it stood by the rule, which took effect Aug. 1. LGBTQ youth, their parents, health professionals and others say transgender youth are restricted. harming their mental health and making often isolated students even more vulnerable.
The Biden administration has asked federal appeals courts in Cincinnati, Denver and New Orleans to overturn the judges’ rulings. It asked the US Supreme Court on Monday to narrow the rulings, which apply in 10 states. He wants to enforce a provision declaring that bias against transgender students violates Title IX of 1972, which prohibits gender discrimination in education without affecting bathroom access or the use of students’ preferred pronouns.
Decisions by various federal judges have blocked the rule, at least through tests of the states’ claims, but they have concluded that the states have shown that the Department of Education exceeded the authority granted by Title IX. Sipple and Broomes also said the rule likely violates the free speech rights of transgender students and staff who do not recognize their gender identities.
“The court also finds that the rules currently in place have essentially ‘remained unchanged for nearly 50 years.’ Therefore, maintaining the status quo would do less harm than others,” Sipple wrote in his decision, citing Broomes’ July 2 decision.
In the Kansas case, Mothers for Freedom asked Broomes to apply the July 2 order to any area where a group member lives — greatly expanding its reach to include most major U.S. cities. Broomes refused, but she also rejected the Department of Education’s argument that Mothers for Freedom could not add to the list of affected schools through people who joined after July 2.
Moms for Liberty said it encouraged people to join online — and changed its website — so that the schools of new members’ children could comply with Broomes’ order.