Kansas and three other Republican-led states are suing the Biden administration’s Department of Education over its recently announced Title IX changes, which will soon forbid discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation in federally funded educational institutions.
The federal lawsuit, filed on Tuesday by Kansas attorney general Kris Kobach, is the latest multistate lawsuit to challenge President Joe Biden’s reinterpretation of Title IX, which was created in 1972 to protect female students and employees from sex-based discrimination. The updated civil-rights law, effective August 1, will include added protections for LGBTQ+ people and pregnant women in educational settings.
The revised rule, the 85-page lawsuit argues, “amounts to an unconstitutional act of legislative power” because the Department of Education, as an executive agency, violates the separation-of-powers clause in the Constitution by bypassing Congress. The guidance also violates the First Amendment rights of students, teachers, and other school employees who refuse to comply with the gender-identity or sexual-orientation protections for religious reasons. Moreover, according to the complaint, the rule runs contrary to the original intent of Title IX.
“In the federal statute known as Title IX, male means biological male, and female means biological female. Biden’s Department of Education has no authority to do what it is attempting to do,” Kobach said at a press conference on Tuesday, announcing the litigation.
At least 20 other Republican states, starting with Texas, have sued the Biden administration since the long-awaited changes were announced last month.
On April 19, the Department of Education released its final rule to rewrite Title IX. The new rule, according to a fact sheet from the federal department, extends protections to individuals based on sexual orientation, gender identity, and sex characteristics in educational institutions and programs that receive federal funding. If schools are found in violation of the 1972 law’s revision, they can lose federal funds.
Additionally, the revision will roll back a Trump-era policy that required live hearings and cross-examinations, in which students accused of sexual assault could question their accusers. Under the new rule, the live hearings will be optional and preclude “unclear or harassing” questions from being asked.
Notably, the rule did not include policies concerning transgender athletes.
Kobach said Biden’s regulation poses several practical problems on top of the legal violations. It can force women to share restrooms, locker rooms, or overnight accommodations with transgender-identifying men and incentivize pregnant women to seek an abortion, among other problems.
“It’s insanity,” Kobach said. “Biden’s Title IX rule is unconscionable. It’s dangerous to girls and women, and it’s against federal law.”
In addition to the Department of Education, education secretary Miguel Cardona, the Department of Justice, and U.S. attorney general Merrick Garland are also being sued.
Alaska, Utah, and Wyoming joined Kansas in the latest lawsuit. The other plaintiffs are Moms for Liberty, Young America’s Foundation, and a female student-athlete and Female Athletes United, both of which are represented by the conservative Alliance Defending Freedom.
“The Biden administration’s radical redefinition of sex won’t just rewire our educational system. It means girls will be forced to undress in locker rooms and share bedrooms with boys on overnight school trips, teachers and students will have to refrain from speaking truthfully about biological sex, and girls will lose their right to fair competition in sports,” ADF legal counsel Rachel Rouleau said in a statement.
“The administration continues to ignore biological reality, science, and commonsense,” she added, “and women and girls, including our brave clients in this case, are suffering as a result.”