States that reject new federal regulations on discrimination in schools based on sexual orientation and gender identity will not be forced to comply with them for the time being.
The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday rejected a request by the Biden administration for a partial stay of the measures, allowing some of the new rules to take effect while lower courts consider disputes over protections for transgender students.
Several lawsuits have challenged the U.S. Department of Education’s change to Title IX policy, which addresses sex discrimination in all schools that receive federal funding.
A total of 26 states, including South Carolina, are blocking enforcement of the regulations. In 22 of them, lower court rulings have already been obtained that prevent full implementation of the regulations.
Court ruling blocks new Title IX rules in schools and colleges across South Carolina
Opponents of the policy argue that the rules impose undesirable standards on issues that are better left to locals to decide for themselves. They also add fuel to the ongoing dispute between Republican governors and attorneys general against the Democratic president’s pro-LGBTQ+ stance.
The Supreme Court’s ruling on Friday came in response to lawsuits filed by Kentucky, which is being challenged by six other states, and Louisiana, which was joined by three other states and local school districts.
“This means Louisiana schools will not have to comply with the Biden-Harris administration’s request to allow boys to use the girls’ restrooms when our children return to school,” Attorney General Liz Murrill said in a statement.
The new Title IX regulations do not explicitly require schools to open their restrooms to students according to their gender identity. However, they prohibit blanket policies that prohibit transgender students from using restrooms that correspond with their gender identity.
Conservative Justice Neil Gorsuch joined liberal Justices Ketanji Brown Jackson, Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor in dissenting from Friday’s ruling. Their opinion focused on the lower courts’ overbroad ruling in blocking any government changes to Title IX.
Among the policy changes that have not been challenged are those for pregnant and postpartum students. For example, schools will be required to provide breastfeeding rooms for mothers and special toilets for pregnant students.
“By preventing the government from enforcing a variety of regulations that respondents never challenged and that had no discernible connection to respondents’ alleged harms, the lower courts exceeded their authority to remedy the harms alleged here,” Sotomayor wrote.
In the Louisiana lawsuit, Murrill claims that the Department of Education’s new gender discrimination policy “permeates all 426 pages,” justifying a blanket action to stop its enforcement.
Peyton Rose Michelle, executive director of Louisiana Trans Advocates, said Friday’s Supreme Court ruling undermines the protections Title IX is intended to provide “by enabling discrimination instead.”
“It is so disappointing to see public authorities at all levels disregarding the dignity of transgender people,” said Michelle. “This persecution must end.”
The Supreme Court’s decision will not affect states that have not challenged the Biden administration’s regulations, and the new rules will continue to apply there.
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