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A federal judge ruled yesterday that the Education Department cannot enforce new Title IX regulations in Oklahoma, just one day before the rules were set to take effect.
Judge Jodi Dishman from the Western District of Oklahoma granted a preliminary injunction, finding that the state was likely to succeed on the merits of its case based on “Title IX’s unambiguous and clear text.”
The decision is a victory for the state’s Republican attorney general, who filed the lawsuit as part of a spate of litigation brought by attorneys general from 25 other states. With the decision in Oklahoma, the department is now prevented from enforcing the rules in 26 states following an appellate court decision late Wednesday to grant Alabama, Florida, Georgia and South Carolina an injunction, overturning a district judge’s ruling from the day before.
Colleges and universities that don’t comply with Title IX could lose federal funding, but in states where enforcement is on hold they’ll be temporarily immune.
As in other states that have challenged the regulations, Oklahoma officials took issue with provisions clarifying that sex-based discrimination prohibited under Title IX includes discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. Other changes would allow transgender students to use the bathrooms and locker rooms consistent with their gender identity.
“Leading up to Title IX’s passage, all relevant congressional statements, hearings, and reports focused on [the] discrimination women faced in education,” Dishman wrote. “Yet the final rule elevates gender identity and its accompanying protections above that of biological sex—i.e., women. Such a contradiction of Title IX’s text and an erosion of its purpose cannot be permitted absent congressional action.”
The Biden administration can appeal the ruling to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit.
