On Jan. 9, U.S. District Judge Danny Reeves struck down the Biden administration’s proposed regulations to Title IX, which were released in April of last year. The decision follows an injunction Reeves put in place last summer, which put a temporary halt on Biden’s regulations. The new rules were intended for implementation in August 2024.
In a column about the injunction that I wrote last summer, I discussed the backstory. The Biden administration wants to revise Title IX so that it would provide legal protections for LGBTQ students. The attorneys general in six states—Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, Virginia, and West Virginia—filed suit to block the new regulations. The suit argued that the new rules undermined the original intent of Title IX and threatened the religious freedom of schools that affirm a traditional, binary understanding of the sexes. While Reeves’ injunction applied to the six states that brought the lawsuit, eventually 26 states refused to implement the changes because of various legal challenges from conservative lawmakers.
In his final decision published last week, Reeves argues the Biden administration is attempting to transform the meaning and application of Title IX, all the while bypassing the legislative process. He also reiterates his previous concerns about the threat Biden’s proposed rules pose to First Amendment freedoms. Reeves contends that the 2020 regulations adopted by the Trump administration are consistent with the original intention of Title IX, dating to its adoption in 1972. There is no need to revise a law that does exactly what it was intended to do.
Conservatives are celebrating the decision, including former Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, who served in the first Trump administration. Reeves’ ruling is another blow to the Biden administration, particularly Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona, whose efforts to implement progressive policies have been thwarted consistently by commonsense courts and conservative state legislatures. One recent article referred to the “graveyard” of higher education policies Biden will leave behind.
Left-leaning education periodicals like The Chronicle of Higher Education and Inside Higher Education slanted their coverage toward progressives who lament the Reeves decision. They offer the usual arguments. Transgenderism is a defining civil rights issue of our era. Decent people believe that biological men in female spaces are perfectly normal. Women will not be safe if Title IX isn’t redefined. Conservatives don’t care about violence toward women or sexual minorities. Conservatives are a threat to authentic education.
Click Here To Read More (Originally Published at World Magazine)
