(Tony Sifert, Headline USA) A federal court has blocked the Biden administration’s unilateral attempt to coerce states into enforcing a radical woke interpretation of Title VII and Title IX civil rights protections, according to an Alliance Defending Freedom press release.
A federal court has enjoined (blocked) the Biden admin from implementing a series of 2021 missives that redefined sex to include “gender identity” for Title VII and IX purposes as to the plaintiff states (but not nationally). Tenn v. Dept of Ed.
Big win. Celebrate. @WDI_USA pic.twitter.com/KGzH8smPKQ
— Kara Dansky (@KDansky) July 16, 2022
The ruling in State of Tennessee v. U.S. Department of Education temporarily allows states to continue to prohibit, among other things, so-called transgender women from participating in women’s sports in high school and college.
In August 2021, Tennessee led a coalition of 20 states in suing the Department of Education and the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission, which had recently issued “guidance documents” threatening states with federal lawsuits if they did not comply with the leftist attempt to annihilate biological sex as a relevant category in public schools and private companies.
“The guidance purports to resolve highly controversial and localized issues such as whether employers and schools may maintain sex-separated showers and locker rooms,” the states argued. “But the agencies have no authority to resolve those sensitive questions, let alone to do so by executive fiat without providing any opportunity for public participation.”
The states argued that the drastic change in the interpretation of Titles VII and IX amounted to new legislation that could only be authoritatively issued by Congress.
U.S. District Judge Charles E. Atchley of the Eastern District of Tennessee at Knoxville agreed.
“[T]he Court finds that . . . the challenged guidance documents are legislative rules that create new rights and obligations,” Atchley wrote. “The Department overlooked the caveats expressly recognized by the Supreme Court and created new law.”
ADF attorney Jonathan Scruggs applauded Atchley’s ruling in a statement.
“The Biden administration’s radical push to redefine sex in federal law—and without the required public comment period—threatens to erase women’s sports and eliminate the opportunities for women that Title IX was intended to protect,” Scruggs said. “The court was right to find that the Biden administration exceeded its authority in issuing orders that jeopardize fair play.”
