SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH—Attorney General Sean D. Reyes joined 22 attorneys general in an amicus brief in Alabama v. U.S. Secretary of Education at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. The filing, which was led by the State of Mississippi, supports a challenge to the federal government’s brazen attempt to undermine Title IX discrimination protections for girls and women.
At its core, Title IX ensures women and girls have the same educational opportunities as boys and men. On April 19, the U.S. Department of Education published its final rule for Title IX, radically transforming federal policies governing and protecting against discrimination in schools around the nation. Multiple lawsuits were filed to stop the new regulation from going into effect on August 1. The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama declined to grant a preliminary injunction on the challenge from the States of Alabama, Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina over the legality of the Title IX rule. The States filed an emergency appeal at the Eleventh Circuit, which issued an administrative injunction against the rule, pending future deliberations.
In their brief, the attorneys general argue that “background principles show that Title IX prohibits only discrimination based on biological sex,” and that “extending Title IX beyond biological sex would have profound negative ramifications.”
As the States write, “Extending Title IX beyond biological sex would hand to federal agencies—and strip from the people—power over significant questions on sexual orientation and gender identity. It would empower the Department of Education to require schools to force boys and girls to share bathrooms, locker rooms, and other intimate spaces with those of the opposite sex. It would allow Washington-based functionaries to end the longstanding practice—necessary for equal opportunity, competitive integrity, and physical safety—of separating school athletics based on sex. And, because Title IX’s nondiscrimination prohibition now applies in federally funded healthcare programs, it would allow agency officials with no medical training to dictate to doctors when and how they can rely on sex-based distinctions when caring for patients.”
This challenge from the Alabama-led coalition closely tracks another lawsuit from a group of six states. These states achieved victory with their case at the U.S. District Court in Eastern Kentucky, though the ruling was limited to those jurisdictions.
Joining Utah and Mississippi were the States of Alaska, Arkansas, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wyoming.
