The Supreme Court declined the White House’s’s emergency request to partially reinstate Biden’s new Title IX rule on Friday.
The 5-4 decision upholds lower court injunctions in nearly half of states that block a new rule that includes, for the first time, sexual orientation and gender identity in Title IX, according to the high court. The administration sought to narrow these injunctions, which prevent the enforcement of rules concerning gender identity.
Supreme Court refuses DOJ request to partially reinstate new Title IX rule https://t.co/SQjlTeedCJ pic.twitter.com/LEeorXDmCc
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The White House argued the injunctions should not obstruct the enforcement of other revised elements of Title IX, including enhanced protections for pregnant students and improved processes for handling retaliation and record-keeping, the document revealed. The court’s unsigned order stated the government did not provide adequate grounds to overturn the lower courts’ decisions, which found the disputed provisions were intertwined with other parts of the new rule. (RELATED: Biden Admin Releases Finalized Rules Expanding Title IX Protection To Transgender Students)
WASHINGTON, DC – JULY 11: In this handout provided by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), U.S. President Joe Biden listens to NASA administrators during a preview of the first full-color image from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope. (Photo by Bill Ingalls-NASA via Getty Images)
Justice Sonia Sotomayor, with three other liberal justices and conservative Justice Neil Gorsuch, wrote the dissent. Sotomayor criticized the lower courts’ injunctions as overly broad. “By blocking the Government from enforcing scores of regulations that respondents never challenged and that bear no apparent relationship to respondents’ alleged injuries, the lower courts went beyond their authority to remedy the discrete harms alleged here,” Sotomayor wrote, The Hill reported.
The decision is not the final word on the new Title IX rules, as the ongoing legal challenges will return to lower appellate courts for further review. This ongoing litigation follows a 2020 Supreme Court ruling that established protections against employment discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, according to The Hill.
