The U.S. Supreme Court ruled against the Biden-Harris administration last week over its attempt to expand Title IX protections to transgender students.
In a 5-4 ruling, the nation’s highest court pushed back on the administration’s attempt to redefine Title IX in such a way that it would have allowed biologically male and female students into the locker rooms, bathrooms, and dorms of the opposite sex, as well as codify allowing men to compete against women in 10 states that have banned such conduct.
The Biden Administration announced sweeping changes in April, asserting that Title IX’s prohibition on “sex” discrimination in schools extends to discrimination based on gender identity, sexual orientation, and “pregnancy or related conditions.”
After the law went into effect on August 1, over two dozen Republican attorneys general filed a lawsuit against the administration, contending that it conflicts with state laws restricting biological men from competing in women’s sports. They also argued that the administration was attempting to redefine Title IX in a way that Congress never intended.
The Biden Administration argued, for one, that the new regulations would not impact athletics, though experts have presented evidence suggesting otherwise.
But on Friday, the Supreme Court brushed aside the administration’s objections.
“On this limited record and in its emergency applications, the Government has not provided this Court a sufficient basis to disturb the lower courts’ interim conclusions that the three provisions found likely to be unlawful are intertwined with and affect other provisions of the rule,” the court wrote.
Earlier in the week, 102 female athletes petitioned the Supreme Court to address a challenge to state laws that ban biological men from competing in women’s sports. The petitioners argued that biological differences in strength make fair competition unfeasible.
“A growing number of women and girls have been facing the humiliating and damaging experience of being forced to compete against males who identify as transgender in the women’s sports category,” says a filing obtained by the Washington Times.
“It is hard to express the pain, humiliation, frustration and shame women experience when they are forced to compete against males in sport. It is public shaming and suffering, an exclusion from women’s own category,” the filing continued.
As a U.S. senator in 2018, Harris opposed changes to Title IX made by the Trump-era Department of Education that required hearings over claims of sexual harassment after several students were falsely accused over the previous years. Biden quickly reversed those changes when he became president, and Harris supported the changes. She also signed a letter calling for the Trump Education Department to rescind its rule change.
In an op-ed for Fox News Digital earlier this month, former champion collegiate swimmer Riley Gaines, who has since taken up the cause for women’s rights in sports, highlighted four of the most “dangerous” Title IX changes sought by Biden-Harris.
“One of the most alarming aspects of these changes is the fact men are taking scholarships meant for women, both academically and athletically. This change is more severe than the obvious unfairness of men competing with women,” she wrote. “The scholarships that women receive are often a lifeline to a better future they might not have been awarded otherwise.”
Next, she argued, giving biological men access to locker rooms and dorms meant for women is asking for trouble. “A college-aged man having unrestricted access to women’s living quarters and intimate areas like locker rooms is like the fox guarding the henhouse,” she wrote.
Continuing, she said, “Under the new Title IX rewrite, any student, faculty member, coach, employee or persons affiliated with a program that receives federal funding would be required to use biologically incorrect pronouns under the guide of preventing ‘hate speech.’ If you do not follow these rules, you would be violating a federal law, potentially resulting in sexual harassment charges or a loss of funding.”
Finally, the Biden-Harris changes once again put men at risk of being falsely accused of harassment.
“Title IX changes could make it easier for accusations to lead to severe penalties without adequate evidence. This shift could undermine the fundamental principle of innocent until proven guilty, turning campuses into environments where due process is a secondary consideration,” Gaines wrote.
