Federal judge blocks Biden administration move to expand Title IX protections for LGBTQ+ students
LGBTQ Issues,Ken Paxton,Transgender Issues,Schools,Public Schools,Education,Sports,Discrimination,Title IX,Education Department
A Texas federal judge blocked the Biden administration's efforts to extend federal anti-discrimination protections to LGBTQ+ students.
In his ruling Tuesday, Judge Reed O'Connor said the Biden administration lacked the authority to make the changes and accused it of pushing โan agenda wholly divorced from the text, structure, and contemporary context of Title IX.โ Title IX is the 1972 law that prohibits discrimination based on sex in educational settings.
โTo allow [the Biden administrationโs] unlawful action to stand would be to functionally rewrite Title IX in a way that shockingly transforms American education and usurps a major question from Congress,โ wrote OโConnor, a President George W. Bush appointee. โThat is not how our democratic system functions.โ
The Biden administrationโs new guidelines, issued in April, expanded Title IX to ban discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. The changes would make schools and universities responsible for investigating a wider range of discrimination complaints.