U.S. Supreme Court Blocks Biden-Harris Administration’s Title IX Rule, AG Coleman Announces

Some rules of the would have started this month

FRANKFORT Ky. (Aug. 16, 2024) – Attorney General Russell Coleman announced today that the U.S. Supreme Court agreed with Republican attorneys general to continue blocking the Biden-Harris Administration's assault on Title IX, which would have undermined opportunities for women and girls in education. The ruling from the high court marks the latest major defeat for the Biden-Harris Administration's attempt to redefine sex to include “gender identity” and “sex characteristics.”

The Supreme Court unanimously agreed to continue blocking key aspects of the rule, which would have taken effect August 1. A 5-4 majority voted to prevent the entire rule from taking effect. The justices consolidated two challenges to the Biden-Harris Administration’s rule, including General Coleman’s challenge with Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti and four other states.

“We went to the U.S. Supreme Court to defend equal opportunities for Kentucky’s women and young girls. At its core, this is a fight for common sense itself. And we’ve won at every level of our judicial system,” said Attorney General Coleman. “The Biden-Harris Administration is threatening to rip away 50 years of Title IX protections. Together with our colleagues in Tennessee and four other states, we are fighting to uphold the promise of Title IX for generations to come.”  

Had it taken effect, the Biden-Harris Administration's rule would have required K-12 schools, colleges and universities to allow males identifying as females to access women’s sports, bathrooms and locker rooms. Schools failing to comply with the federal rule – even if they followed state law – would have risked losing federal education funding. Last year, public and private schools across Kentucky received a total of $1.1 billion in U.S. Department of Education funding.

Read the Supreme Court order.

Background

In July, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit unanimously agreed with Attorney General Coleman and five other attorneys general to block the entirety of the Biden-Harris Administration’s Title IX rule from taking effect. Following that defeat, the federal government appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Attorney General Coleman and Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti launched this challenge in April with four other states, filing in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky. The Supreme Court unanimously upheld the District Court’s ruling as to all parts of the rule.

In addition to dismantling equal opportunities for women, the Biden-Harris Administration's rule would also upend existing parental rights protections, annul free speech protections by, for example, requiring school administrators, teachers and students to use a student’s preferred pronouns, and undermine due process in the academic and athletic world.

Kentucky and Tennessee were joined in their challenge by Indiana, Ohio, Virginia and West Virginia.