Ninth Circuit Rules Religious Colleges Can Be Exempt from Title IX Gender Identity Regs

In a court decision that experts say is a win for the protection of religious liberty, the Ninth Circuit recently ruled to maintain religious college’s right to Title IX exemptions.

The case related to this decision, Hunter v. U.S. Department of Education, came about shortly after the Biden-Harris administration rewrote Title IX to include the term “gender identity,” opening the door for biological men to enter private women’s spaces. After religious colleges publicly opposed the new rule, an LGBT activist group, The Religious Exemption Accountability Project (REAP), filed a lawsuit “to prevent any students from using tuition grants, student loans, and any other federal financial assistance at schools that operate according to religious beliefs on sexuality.”

The lawsuit was filed with the goal of preventing Christian students who held Christian convictions from receiving financial aid. The conservative legal group Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) took up the case earlier this year and defended three targeted schools: Corban University, William Jessup University, and Phoenix Seminary. On August 30, the Ninth Circuit’s decision came through.

ADF Senior Counsel Chris Schandevel celebrated the ruling in a statement: “Federal law explicitly protects the freedom of religious schools to live out their deeply held convictions, and we’re pleased this legal victory protects Christian colleges’ fundamental rights.” As he went on to explain, “A group of activists asked the court to strip that protection away from schools that educate the next generation and advance the common good,” but “the 9th Circuit correctly held that the religious-liberty exemption in Title IX, which applies to schools receiving federal financial assistance, is consistent with the Constitution.”

In an interview with The College Fix, Schandevel was able to further articulate the significance of the ruling. It’s “a recognition of the foundational truth of this nation,” he said. “The Constitution exists to protect the religious freedom of all believers, the freedom to live out that belief.” This, he added, is especially important in a time where “tolerance has come to mean that you have to actively celebrate and approve my choices. If you don’t tolerate me, I’m gonna deny you the chance to live out your beliefs,” which “is essentially what the plaintiffs are saying to Christian schools.”

REAP did not take to the ruling well. On their website, the activist group that filed the initial lawsuit claimed “religious exemptions to civil rights statutes come at a price,” which they believe is “paid by the young and vulnerable who find themselves at the mercy of religiously affiliated, taxpayer-funded social service and educational institutions that often turn them away or force them into the closet.” However, as Arielle Del Turco, Family Research Council’s director of the Center for Religious Liberty, shared with The Washington Stand, “This is exactly the right decision from the Ninth Circuit.”

It’s correct, she added, because “it affirms that religious educational institutions [can] receive an exemption from Title IX when its application would not be consistent with the sincerely held religious beliefs of institution.” Moreover, “Students using their federal aid at colleges and universities that share their religious beliefs is not a violation of the First Amendment, as the court made clear.” Ultimately, Del Turco emphasized, “This decision merely affirms the centuries-long American tradition respecting religious accommodations for individuals and organizations.”

As Meg Kilgannon, FRC’s senior fellow for Education Studies, explained to TWS, “This case is just one example of litigation based on sad stories paraded as civil rights injustice.” It “undermines civil rights in the whole by misunderstanding fundamentally the dignity of the human person. Thank you to ADF," she added, "for advocating on behalf of religious freedom and human dignity.”

She concluded, “Though time and again activists try to challenge Americans’ First Amendment rights, we can be confident that the truth is on our side, as is American legal tradition and precedent.”