Carroll Independent School District v. United States Department of Education

FORT WORTH, Texas – A federal district court Wednesday permanently rejected the Biden administration’s illegal rewrite of Title IX across the country in the lawsuit Carroll Independent School District v. United States Department of Education. Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys represent the school district, which challenged the previous administration’s attempt to redefine “sex” in Title IX to include “gender identity,” requiring schools to ignore the biological distinction between male and female in favor of “an individual’s sense of their [sic] gender.” As the court recognized, the attempted rewrite has “no basis in reality.”

The legal victory is the second final ruling that ADF attorneys have secured in similar Title IX lawsuits they are litigating across the country. Last month, a Kentucky federal court decision also rejected the illegal rule change nationwide.

“Carroll Independent School District is right to seek to preserve safety and privacy for the girls—and all students—under its supervision,” said ADF Legal Counsel Mathew Hoffmann. “The Biden administration’s radical redefinition of ‘sex’ in Title IX would have upended our education system. It ignored biological reality, science, and common sense. This dangerous and unnecessary rule change would have had devastating consequences for students, teachers, administrators, and families. The court is right to ensure that girls around the country are safe at school and to protect their privacy, safety, and equal opportunities under Title IX.”

The Biden Department of Education’s fundamental and radical rewriting of federal law would have forced schools across the country to embrace a controversial gender ideology that harms children—including the very children it claims to help. Carroll Independent School District adopted a resolution denouncing the rule change, emphasizing that the rule could “jeopardiz[e] the safety and well-being of students.”

As ADF attorneys explained in the lawsuit, schools would have had to allow males who identify as female to enter girls’ private spaces like restrooms, locker rooms, and showers and—despite logically inconsistent disclaimers saying otherwise—to play on girls’ sports teams. The Biden rule would have also required the school district to enforce policies restricting students’ and employees’ free speech rights.

“As the Court noted in its previous Order granting a preliminary injunction, the Final Rule undermines the purpose of Title IX, endangers students, and has ‘[n]o basis in reality,’” the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, Fort Worth Division, wrote in its order. “Additionally, the Final Rule and its corresponding regulations violate the Constitution and are the result of arbitrary and capricious agency action.”

Carroll Independent School District, with a student body of approximately 8,400, is located in Southlake, Texas, and operates 11 schools for students from pre-K to 12th grade.

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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