The U.S. Supreme Court has issued an order to maintain a block on new Title IX rules while an appeals court hears a case. (Photo by Jane Norman/States Newsroom)
The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday rejected the Biden administration’s attempt to temporarily stay a federal court’s ruling that blocks a key part of the new Title IX school system from taking effect.
The justices are ordering a decision by the U.S. District Court in Eastern Kentucky to temporarily block the rules. Reeves had joined Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman and five other Republican attorneys general, including Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares, in a lawsuit challenging the new Title IX rules, which are aimed at protecting transgender students, among other things.
A federal appeals court last month also refused to stay Reeves’ decision, and that court will hear an appeal of Reeves’ decision in October.
“The Court expects the Courts of Appeal to make their decisions with due dispatch,” the Supreme Court justices wrote in the majority opinion.
The judge also agreed to let stand another federal court ruling that blocked new Title IX rules filed separately by Louisiana’s attorney general and three other Republican attorneys general.
Coleman said in a statement about the order that Republican attorneys general defended equal opportunities for women and young girls.
“The Biden-Harris administration is threatening to strip away 50 years of Title IX protections. … we are fighting to uphold the promise of Title IX for future generations,” Coleman said.
Title IX addresses discrimination based on sex in schools that receive federal funding.
U.S. Education Secretary Miquel Cardona said earlier in a statement that the new Title IX rules would build “on the legacy of Title IX by clarifying that all students in our country have access to schools that are safe, welcoming, and respectful of their rights.”
The rules, set to take effect Aug. 1, were intended to roll back Trump administration changes that narrowly defined sexual harassment and required schools to hold live hearings so those accused of sexual harassment or assault could cross-examine their accusers.
Indiana, Ohio, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia joined Kentucky in challenging the administration’s order. When Miyares announced in May that Virginia had joined the lawsuit, he said, “We cannot overturn Title IX in the name of false fairness.”
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 lower courts that ruled too broadly when they blocked all of the government’s revisions to Title IX.
The policy changes that were not challenged include those for pregnant and postpartum students. For example, they require schools to provide breastfeeding rooms for mothers and designated restrooms for pregnant students.
“By blocking the government from enforcing dozens of rules that respondents never challenged and that bear no apparent relationship to respondents’ alleged injuries, the lower courts have exceeded their authority to remedy the separate damages alleged here,” Sotomayor wrote.
Greg LaRose of the Louisiana Illuminator contributed to this report.
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