|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday denied a request from the Department of Justice to lift the injunction on certain portions of new Title IX revisions ordered by the Biden Administration.
Alabama is among the states that have won an injunction on the new Title IX revisions, which just took effect. A federal judge actually denied an injunction in Alabama’s case, but the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals overturned that decision the next day.
The Supreme Court issued the narrow 5-4 ruling Friday, with conservative justice Neil Gorsuch joining the three liberal justices in the dissent.
This decision only applies to the request by the DOJ to reinstate some provisions of Title IX, which they argued are unrelated to the injuries the plaintiffs say they will face from the provisions on gender identity and sex discrimination.
The majority opinion found that the provisions on gender identity and sex discrimination are “intertwined with and affect other provisions of the rule” and that the DOJ had “not provided this Court a sufficient basis to disturb the lower courts” findings.
Liberal justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote the dissent.
“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.
One such provision that will remain enjoined will be the necessity for schools to provide accommodations for breastfeeding students.
The Department of Education said it stands by the new Title IX provisions, which will still be in effect in the 24 states that have not challenged the revisions.
“While we do not agree with this ruling, the Department stands by the final Title IX regulations released in April 2024, and we will continue to defend those rules in the expedited litigation in the lower courts,” an agency spokesperson said in a statement.
The legal fight will continue for Alabama, and the Supreme Court could eventually weigh in on this battle once again.
