A U.S. appeals court has rejected the Biden administration’s efforts to revive a directive that would require schools to allow transgender students to use bathrooms, locker rooms, and join sports teams that align with their gender identity. This directive had been blocked in 20 Republican-led states.
In a 2-1 decision, the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati, Ohio, agreed with these states that the 2021 U.S. Department of Education guidance improperly imposed new legal obligations on public schools that are not stipulated in federal law. The court ruled that the department had not followed the correct procedures for establishing new rules and did not address whether a federal law banning sex discrimination in education extends protections to LGBTQ students.
The court upheld a Tennessee federal judge’s 2022 decision that blocked the enforcement of the guidance in the 20 states, including the many public universities they operate, pending the outcome of their lawsuit.
The Department of Education and the office of Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti, a Republican, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Earlier this week, a federal judge in Texas also blocked the guidance from being enforced in that state, asserting that it improperly redefined anti-discrimination law and “shockingly transforms American education.”
The guidance from the Department of Education was a response to a landmark 2020 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that extended federal law banning workplace sex bias protections to LGBTQ workers. The Education Department argued that the same logic should apply under Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, as both laws use similar language.
In April, the department adopted formal, binding regulations extending Title IX’s protections to LGBTQ students. However, Friday’s court decision does not affect these new rules, which are being challenged by several states.
In their lawsuit, Tennessee and other states argued that the Department of Education did not have the authority to extend the Supreme Court ruling to Title IX. The 6th Circuit also rejected various procedural claims by the Biden administration, including that the states led by Tennessee could not demonstrate that the non-binding guidance documents would cause them injury.
