In a 5-4 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court denied an emergency request from the Biden administration to reinstate its revisions to Title IX.
The Biden administration sought to expand protections under the federal law, which prohibits discrimination based on sex in any educational program or activity, to include gender identity and sexual orientation.
The attorneys general of at least 20 states challenges those changes in court, arguing the changes were implemented without proper consideration and would infringe on local and state authority.
Writing for the majority, Justice Samuel Alito said, “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.”
“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,” wrote Justice Sonia Sotomayor in her dissent, who was joined by justices Ketanji Brown Jackson, Elena Kagan, and Neil Gorsuch, a conservative.
“The decision is not a final ruling in the various lawsuits challenging the new Title IX rule, and the cases will now return to lower appeals courts. The matter could eventually return to the Supreme Court,” reports The Hill.
The decision was heralded as a win by several prominent conservatives.
“In a 5-4 decision, SCOTUS has struck down the Biden-Harris administration's rewrite of Title IX, which would have allowed men in women’s sports, bathrooms, locker rooms, dorms, and compelled speech,” said activist Riley Gaines. “HUGE win. Onward!” 🚨BREAKING: In a 5-4 decision, SCOTUS has struck down the Biden-Harris administration's rewrite of Title IX, which would have allowed men in women’s sports, bathrooms, locker rooms, dorms, and compelled speech.
HUGE win. Onward! pic.twitter.com/MwOmRYpgg3
— Riley Gaines (@Riley_Gaines_) August 16, 2024
“Today, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected the Biden Administration’s radical Title IX rules, keeping our multi-state injunction in place. Men shouldn’t be playing in women’s sports, and women’s privacy and security in locker rooms and changing areas must be respected,” wrote West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey.
“More work to do but for now, we are winning our fights to protect women’s privacy and safety thanks to a 5-4 decision by #SCOTUS,” he added. “Expect more information out of West Virginia and SCOTUS in upcoming months as we have several big petitions before the high court.”
Chris Geidner, who authors a blog that analyzes legal documents and rulings, noted that “SCOTUS allows lower courts to block the Biden administration's entire Title IX sex discrimination rule, despite lawsuits not even challenging most of it.”
