Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti applauded a federal court’s order vacating the Biden administration’s Title IX rule nationwide.
In April 2024, a lawsuit led by Skrmetti and Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman and joined by the state attorneys general of Ohio, Indiana, Virginia, and West Virginia was filed challenging the Biden administration’s Department of Education over its finalized rule to rewrite Title IX to encompass gender identity and sexual orientation.
Another massive win for TN and the country!
This morning, a federal court ruled in our favor and vacated the Biden admin’s radical new Title IX rule nationwide.
The court’s order is resounding victory for the protection of girls’ privacy in locker rooms and showers, and for the… pic.twitter.com/XsnzSEQvAU
— TN Attorney General (@AGTennessee) January 9, 2025
The rule would have rewritten Title IX to abolish 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.
The rule was scheduled to be implemented on August 1, 2024, before federal trial courts blocked the Title IX rewrite from taking effect in 10 states that joined two separate lawsuits challenging the rule.
Additionally, in August, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the case brought by the state attorneys general of Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, and Idaho challenging the Title IX rewrite to block the rule from taking effect.
On Thursday, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky granted summary judgment in favor of the state attorneys general led by Tennessee’s Skrmetti challenging the Title IX rewrite, vacating the rule nationwide.
“Because the Final Rule and its corresponding regulations exceed the Department’s authority under Title IX, violate the Constitution, and are the result of arbitrary and capricious agency action, the plaintiffs’ motions for summary judgment will be granted and the Department’s motion for summary judgment will be denied,” the court’s Thursday order reads.
Skrmetti called the court’s order a “resounding victory for the protection of girls’ privacy in locker rooms and showers, and for the freedom to speak biologically-accurate pronouns.”
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
