A federal judge has temporarily blocked the Biden administration’s Title IX guidance on gender identity and sexual orientation.
U.S. District Judge Charles Atchley in the Eastern District of Tennessee ruled last week that the administration’s guidance misquoted the Supreme Court to equate sex and gender identity, likely violating federal law.
The administration’s guidance effectively forced states to allow biological males to use girls restrooms, forbade states from barring males from participating in female sports, and forced employers to use employees’ preferred pronouns, all at the risk of losing federal funding, according to the state attorneys general who sued the administration. The guidance was released last year by the Education Department and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
“As it currently stands, plaintiffs must choose between the threat of legal consequences — enforcement action, civil penalties, and the withholding of federal funding — or altering their state laws to ensure compliance with the guidance and avoid such adverse action,” Atchley, a Trump appointee, wrote in his preliminary injunction.