Biden’s Title IX Rewrite Rejected by 6th Circuit: Americans Are ‘Standing Up’ for Women

From the day it was announced, President Joe Biden’s Title IX rewrite that allows biological men into private women’s spaces caused a tsunami of backlash. Originally set to take effect in August, so far, the rewrite is now temporarily blocked from moving forward in at least 10 states — Idaho, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia. And it seems the tide against the rewrite seems to have strengthened after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit decided on Wednesday to reject the Biden administration’s new Title IX rule.

As reported by the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), “The district court had previously issued an injunction against the administration’s illegal attempt to rewrite Title IX while the lawsuit, State of Tennessee v. Cardona, moves forward.” Additionally, ADF noted they have injunctions from three other lawsuits: Carroll Independent School District, State of Kansas, and Rapids Parish School Board, all against the United States Department of Education. And with the court’s decision Wednesday, it seems the case to push against Biden’s rewrite marches onward.

Praising the decision, ADF Vice President of Litigation Strategy and Center for Conscience Initiatives Jonathan Scruggs said in a statement, “The 6th Circuit was right to affirm halting the administration’s illegal efforts to rewrite Title IX while this critical lawsuit continues.” He added, “Our female athlete client has already suffered the humiliation and indignity of being harassed by a male student in the locker room and on her sports team. No one else should have to go through that. We are pleased the court ruled to keep the lower court’s injunction in place and uphold safety and privacy while this lawsuit continues.”

Meg Kilgannon, Family Research Council’s senior fellow for Education Studies, celebrated Wednesday’s decision. “This is great news!” she shared with The Washington Stand. “It is wonderful so many legal cases are moving forward to protect women and girls from the Biden Administration's insane interpretation of Title IX.” Kilgannon noted that there “are already very progressive policies in place in some districts now enjoined by this decision,” which makes it a point of interest to then “see if or how this impacts those policies.”

As Senior Advisor at Concerned Women for America Doreen Denny explained in comment to TWS, “With this ruling, we are now six for six in challenges against Biden’s illegitimate rule in federal courts.” According to Denny, “each of these positive decisions blocking enforcement” are definite wins “for women and girls in protecting our rights under Title IX on the basis of our immutable sex, male and female.”

Beyond protecting women, she noted that this ruling also proves “Biden is losing in court.” As she put it, this most recent appeal “is the first appeal to a higher court by the Department of Education after losing in five district courts, and they have lost again.” Evidently, “Federal judges are consistently ruling that the Biden Administration has perverted the plain meaning of sex in reinterpreting Title IX, and cases brought by states to block Biden’s rule permanently have a strong chance of winning on the merits.” And moving forward, Denny said she hopes “this decision leads to a permanent, nationwide injunction blocking Biden’s radical rewrite of Title IX.”

With the 6th Circuit set to review the case in October, Denny predicted that “by then, more decisions in lower courts, and more losses for Biden’s Department of Education, should add to the winning track record that will uphold the intent and integrity of Title IX in providing equal opportunities in education and athletics on the basis of our God-given sex, not self-defined ‘gender identity.’”

In a comment to TWS, Mary Szoch, the director of FRC’s Center for Human Dignity, urged, “When the Biden administration rewrote Title IX, they went a step too far for Americans.” According to Szoch, they were clearly “prioritizing the woke agenda over the safety of and opportunities for women and girls,” which “is beyond what Americans are willing to stand for.”

As for what this week’s ruling means for the future, Szoch concluded, “I think that as long as there is a push to allow biological men in girls bathrooms and locker rooms, and on the girls’ playing field, we will see Americans standing up to protect and defend those girls.”