On Thursday, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals issued a ruling that temporarily blocks the Biden-Harris administration’s revised interpretation of Title IX from taking effect in four states: South Carolina, Florida, Georgia, and Alabama, pending further appeal. The administration’s new rules interpret Title IX, a key provision of the Civil Rights Act, to equate gender identity with biological sex, drawing on the Supreme Court’s decision in Bostock.
In its order, the court stated, “Ultimately, the Department’s regulation contravenes the Supreme Court’s construction of Title IX ‘discrimination’ set out in Davis and runs headlong into the First Amendment concerns animating decisions like Davis and Cartwright. Accordingly, it is highly likely that the Department’s regulation is contrary to law and ‘in excess of statutory … authority.’”
The court ruled in favor of the states by a 2-1 margin. The decision emphasized, “It is certainly highly likely that the Department’s new regulation defining discrimination ‘on the basis of sex’ to include ‘gender identity’ is contrary to law and ‘in excess of statutory authority.’”
The legal challenge against the Department of Education’s revised Title IX rules was brought by the four states, along with advocacy groups including the Independent Women’s Law Center, Parents