(Jan. 9, 2025): Today, the states of Kentucky, Ohio, Virginia, Indiana, Tennessee and West Virginia received a major win against Biden’s Secretary of Education. They can now be assured that Biden’s new Title IX regulation cannot be enforced across the country and that no American citizen will be forced to ascribe to “gender ideology” or other forms of compelled speech in educational facilities.
Southeastern Legal Foundation Executive Director Kim Hermann commented on this win saying,
“Huge blow today for Biden’s wildly unconstitutional plan to hollow out Title IX protections and instead use federal law to enforce gender ideology in public schools and colleges across our nation. Freedom has won in the Court’s decision to grant summary judgement for the plaintiffs in this case and throw out the Biden Title IX rules as ‘unlawful’ and offensive to the First Amendment.
“The precedent has now been set to support First Amendment rights of everyday Americans over the whims of the Administrative State and we will continue to fight for this right until our last breath. We look forward to receiving a similar ruling in our own case out of Kansas fighting Biden’s Title IX changes on behalf of Moms for Liberty and Young America’s Foundation.”
Highlights from the US District Court Eastern District of Kentucky Northern Division:
- “The Court remains persuaded that the Final Rule offends the First Amendment for the reasons explained in its prior Memorandum Opinions and Orders.”
- “…the Department fails to account for the glaring inconsistencies that the Final Rule creates within Title IX. It acknowledges that Congress has deemed sex separation (and thus, more than de minimis harm) permissible in various circumstances such as social fraternities and sororities and living facilities.”
- “While the Department argues in favor of severance, the Court remains persuaded that the three challenged provisions fatally taint the entire rule. As the Court has explained, the definition of discrimination “on the basis of sex” lies at the heart of Title IX and permeates virtually every provision of the law.”
- “Put simply, the First Amendment does not permit the government to chill speech or compel affirmance of a belief with which the speaker disagrees in this manner.”
- “Conversley, the entire point of Title IX is to prevent discrimination based on sex—throwing gender identity into the mix eviscerates the statute and renders it largely meaningless.”
- “Further, vacatur of the Final Rule would simply “cause a return to the status quo” that existed for more than 50 years prior to its effective date.”
Read the full Kentucky federal court opinion.