Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti and Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman urged a federal judge in Kentucky to block the U.S. Department of Education’s (DOE) finalized rule to rewrite Title IX to encompass gender identity and sexual orientation.
Skrmetti and Coleman filed the motion for a preliminary injunction in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky on Monday.
In April, Skrmetti, Coleman (pictured above, left), and four other state attorneys general sued the Biden administration’s DOE over its finalized rule to rewrite Title IX.
The lawsuit brought by the six attorneys general challenging the DOE’s final rule is the first to be heard in federal court so far.
Title IX currently states:
No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.
The DOE’s finalized rule, if allowed to stand, abolishes sex-based distinctions in educational activities and programs to accommodate transgender individuals, essentially requiring K-12 schools, colleges, and universities to allow males identifying as females access to women’s sports, bathrooms, and locker rooms.
In addition, any school that fails to comply with the new rule, if upheld in court, would be at risk of losing federal education funding.
“We’re working to end the administration’s new Title IX rule for good, but today’s hearing was about stopping the rule from going into effect on August 1,” Skrmetti in a statement. “We don’t want our schools and universities wasting money preparing to enforce a rule that may well be struck down. While we fight over the rule’s constitutionality, the money that would be spent on retraining and compliance to implement radical gender ideology could instead go toward educating our kids.”
Coleman also released a statement on Monday, saying, “Today, we are in court to protect Kentucky women and girls and their opportunities to succeed. The Biden Administration’s assault on Title IX would end 50 years of protections and fairness. Kentucky and Tennessee are leading the national effort in urging the court to block this rule that violates the Constitution and common sense.”
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
