State of Tennessee v. Cardona
Description: The Biden administration’s unlawful attempt to rewrite Title IX threatens teachers and students’ privacy, safety, fairness, and free speech.
Victory for women, girls: Federal court rejects Biden admin redefinition of 'sex' in Title IX across country
COVINGTON, Ky. – A federal district court in Kentucky issued a decision Thursday in State of Tennessee v. Cardona that blocks the Biden administration’s unlawful attempt to change the meaning of “sex” in Title IX—a federal law designed to create equal opportunities for women in education and athletics—to include “gender identity.” Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys represent a West Virginia high-school female athlete and Christian Educators Association International in the lawsuit alongside the state of Tennessee. The district court ruling applies nationwide and to every part of the Biden Title IX rule, meaning the rule is completely invalidated, and the U.S. Department of Education is unable to enforce it—anywhere.
“This is a colossal win for women and girls across the country,” said ADF CEO, President, and General Counsel Kristen Waggoner. “The Biden administration’s radical attempt to redefine sex not only tossed fairness, safety, and privacy for female students out the window, it also threatened free speech and parental rights. With this ruling, the federal court in Kentucky rejected the entire Biden rule and the administration’s illegal actions. We are thankful for the leadership of Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti and other state attorneys general who challenged this blatant overreach alongside our courageous clients. This ruling provides enormous relief for students across the country, including our client who has already suffered harassment by a male student in the locker room and on her sports team. The U.S. Supreme Court can further protect girls like our client by granting cases brought by the ACLU against West Virginia and Idaho laws that protect women’s sports.”
On April 29, the Biden administration announced it would redefine “sex” in Title IX rules to include “gender identity,” requiring schools to disregard longstanding sex-based protections that respect the biological differences between men and women. ADF attorneys joined several states, women’s groups, athletic associations, and school boards in achieving five injunctions that halt enforcement of the rule change in some jurisdictions as the lawsuits proceed. The district court ruling halts the Biden rule nationwide. Along with ADF, the states of Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia, Indiana, and West Virginia sued in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky, which ruled the Biden administration rule change exceeded authority and was “arbitrary and capricious agency action.”
“[W]hen Title IX is viewed in its entirety, it is abundantly clear that discrimination on the basis of sex means discrimination on the basis of being a male or female,” the court wrote in its opinion. “As this Court and others have explained, expanding the meaning of ‘on the basis of sex’ to include ‘gender identity’ turns Title IX on its head.”
“Title IX,” the court continued, allows “males and females to be separated based on the enduring physical differences between the sexes.”
The athlete client that ADF represents is a 15-year-old girl in West Virginia who was forced to compete against a male athlete on her middle school track-and-field team. The male displaced her several times, even taking away her spot to compete in a conference championship. The male athlete was also given access to the girls’ locker room, and the ADF client had to endure vulgar, sexual comments that the athlete directed at her. The male athlete finished ahead of nearly 300 female competitors in three years of competition on the girls’ team. That same male athlete is the plaintiff in the West Virginia case, now pending at the Supreme Court, that resulted in a ruling undermining West Virginia’s law protecting women’s sports.
Alliance Defending Freedom is an alliance-building, non-profit legal organization committed to protecting religious freedom, free speech, parental rights, and the sanctity of life.
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ABOUT Kristen Waggoner
Kristen Waggoner is the CEO, president, and general counsel of Alliance Defending Freedom: the world’s largest legal organization advancing every person’s God-given right to live and speak the truth. With more than 450 team members in 10 offices worldwide, ADF is at the forefront of today’s most consequential battles in law, public policy, and culture. Under Waggoner’s leadership—first as head of U.S. litigation and now as CEO—ADF has played a role in 80 U.S. Supreme Court victories and won 15 of its own cases before the court, including serving as legal counsel with Mississippi in the landmark Dobbs ruling overturning Roe v. Wade. Waggoner personally argued several of ADF’s Supreme Court cases including the well-known Masterpiece Cakeshop and 303 Creative cases, winning major victories for free expression. She has the honor of leading ADF International, which, like its U.S. counterpart, defends religious liberty, free speech, parental rights, human life, and biological reality around the world. After law school, Waggoner clerked at the Washington Supreme Court and spent over 15 years at a Seattle law firm before joining ADF.
ABOUT Jake Warner
Jake Warner serves as senior counsel for Alliance Defending Freedom’s Appellate Team. Since joining ADF in 2017, Warner has focused primarily on protecting the freedom of Christians to freely exercise their faith in the marketplace without fear of government punishment. He has served on the litigation teams arguing cases such as Masterpiece Cakeshop Inc. v. Elenis and Telescope Media Group v. Lucero. He has also defended religious freedom more broadly. Prior to joining ADF, Warner served as a judicial law clerk to Senior U.S. District Judge Malcolm J. Howard in the Eastern District of North Carolina. Before that, he engaged in private practice with the firm of Perry, Perry, & Perry, in Kinston, North Carolina, where he primarily represented criminal defendants in both federal and state courts. Warner earned his J.D. at Regent School of Law, graduating magna cum laude in 2011. He obtained his B.A. in history and political science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2006. Warner is admitted to practice in Arizona, North Carolina, and the U.S. Supreme Court, as well as many federal district and appellate courts.
ABOUT Jonathan Scruggs
Jonathan Scruggs serves as senior counsel and vice president of litigation strategy and the Center for Conscience Initiatives with Alliance Defending Freedom. In this role, he identifies new litigation opportunities and develops new strategies for protecting free speech and religious liberty in collaboration with the chief legal counsel and litigation team directors. As the leader for the Center for Conscience Initiatives, Scruggs oversees the litigation team defending the rights of professionals and business owners to live out their faith as well as the litigation efforts to protect equal opportunities for women in athletics. Since joining ADF in 2006, Scruggs has worked on and prevailed in a variety of cases that protect the right of people to freely express their faith in their business, at school, and in the public square. He earned his J.D. at Harvard Law School and is admitted to practice in the states of Arizona and Tennessee. Scruggs is also admitted to the U.S. Supreme Court and multiple federal district and appellate courts.
ABOUT Rachel Rouleau
Rachel Rouleau serves as legal counsel for the Church and Ministry Alliance with Alliance Defending Freedom. She focuses on providing legal support to ministries by reviewing governing documents and policies, preparing legal resources, and engaging in public advocacy. Since joining ADF in 2019, Rouleau has worked primarily on the Center for Conscience Initiatives where she focused on protecting the conscience rights of individuals forced to compromise their beliefs under threat of fines and punishment. Rouleau also worked on cases to protect the right of women and girls to privacy and fair competition, including B.P.J. v. West Virginia Board of Education and challenging the Biden administration's unlawful Title IX rule changes in 2024. Rouleau earned her J.D. from William and Mary Law School in 2019. She obtained her B.A., in political science, from the University of Florida in 2015. She is a member of the bar in the District of Columbia, Massachusetts, and Virginia.