(Rightallegiance.com) – On Friday, the U.S. Supreme Court delivered a significant decision, denying an urgent request from the Department of Justice to implement recent updates to a federal rule aimed at preventing sex-based discrimination in education.
Significance of the Ruling
This ruling has major implications, particularly for the Biden administration’s efforts to broaden the scope of Title IX, a landmark civil rights law established in 1972. The administration’s proposed changes sought to extend protections under Title IX to LGBTQ+ students, marking a significant expansion of the law’s original intent. With the Supreme Court’s decision, the enforcement of these expanded protections has been effectively halted, at least for the time being.
Details of the Court’s Decision
The Supreme Court’s decision was narrowly divided, with a 5-4 vote. The high court rejected the Department of Justice’s request to allow certain parts of the updated rule to be enforced, specifically those not directly related to gender identity. This decision primarily affects states where ongoing legal challenges concerning transgender issues are still being considered in lower courts.
In the unsigned order, the Court stated, “On this limited record and in its emergency applications, the Government has not provided this Court a sufficient basis to disturb the lower courts’ interim conclusions that the three provisions found likely to be unlawful are intertwined with and affect other provisions of the rule.”
Justice Sonia Sotomayor, one of the four dissenting justices, expressed her disagreement with the majority’s decision. She argued that by preventing the government from enforcing numerous regulations that were not directly challenged and appeared unrelated to the alleged injuries, the lower courts had exceeded their authority. “By blocking the Government from enforcing scores of regulations that respondents never challenged and that bear no apparent relationship to respondents’ alleged injuries, the lower courts went beyond their authority to remedy the discrete harms alleged here,” Sotomayor wrote.
Background and Broader Context
The controversy surrounding the Biden administration’s updates to Title IX began when a federal judge issued a temporary block on the new rules last month. The judge’s decision came in response to a lawsuit filed by attorneys general from several Republican-led states. These states argued that the proposed changes were unlawful and overreached the federal government’s authority.
Currently, at least 20 states have taken action to block the new policy, citing similar concerns. The federal rule in question was designed to protect individuals from “discrimination based on sex stereotypes, sexual orientation, gender identity, and sex characteristics.”
It is important to note that the proposed changes did not specifically address the contentious issue of transgender athletes. The Department of Education has clarified that the rulemaking process for a Title IX regulation related to athletics is still ongoing.
The new rules were initially scheduled to take effect on August 1, but with the Supreme Court’s recent decision, their future remains uncertain as legal battles continue to unfold in the lower courts.