State of Alabama v. United States Secretary of Education
Description: The states of Alabama, Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina are suing the Biden-Harris administration for unlawfully rewriting Title IX, threatening female athletes, students, and teachers’ privacy, safety, and freedom of speech.
11th Circuit halts Biden-Harris admin's illegal overhaul of Title IX
The following quote may be attributed to Alliance Defending Freedom Senior Counsel Natalie Thompson regarding the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit’s decision Thursday to halt the Biden-Harris administration’s unlawful rewrite of Title IX while the case State of Alabama v. United States Secretary of Education proceeds. ADF attorneys filed a friend-of-the-court brief with the court earlier this month on behalf of Female Athletes United and Christian Educators Association International. In the case, the states of Alabama, Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina are asking the 11th Circuit to protect their right to defend female athletes, students, and teachers’ privacy, safety, and freedom of speech:
“Alabama, Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina are right to seek to preserve safety, privacy, and free speech for their students, female athletes, and teachers. The Biden-Harris administration’s radical redefinition of sex discrimination in Title IX upends our education system and ignores biological reality, science, and common sense. As we explained in our brief, under the administration’s Title IX rule, educators like those we represent face potential punishment for expressing their beliefs at school that men cannot become women or vice versa. And women face the reality of their private spaces being opened to males who identify as female. In effect, the new rules create a nationwide speech code that polices teachers’ and students’ freedom of speech, undermines students’ privacy in sex-specific spaces like showers and locker rooms, and threatens equal opportunities for girls in sports. The 11th Circuit was right to join the U.S. Supreme Court, two other federal appeals courts, and six district courts in stopping the administration’s unlawful and dangerous extension of its authority.”
ADF attorneys have filed five similar lawsuits challenging the administration’s unlawful rewriting of Title IX. In those cases, they have won five victories temporarily halting the rule change at the federal district court level, two such victories at the federal appellate court level, in the 5th Circuit and 6th Circuit, and one at the Supreme Court.
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 Natalie Thompson
Natalie D. Thompson serves as senior counsel at Alliance Defending Freedom, where her practice in the regulatory litigation group focuses on federal administrative law’s impact on religious freedom and the sanctity of life. Before joining ADF, Thompson served as an assistant solicitor general in the office of the Texas attorney general. In that role, she represented the state and its officials on appeal in significant litigation matters, including defending constitutional challenges to Texas laws and claims against state officials. As an assistant solicitor general, Thompson presented oral argument in numerous cases, including 12 arguments before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit and eight before the Supreme Court of Texas. Before her government service, Thompson clerked for the Hon. Andrew S. Oldham of the 5th Circuit, the Hon. Nathan L. Hecht, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Texas, and the Hon. Michael W. Mosman of the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon. Thompson graduated with honors from the University of Chicago Law School and received her BA magna cum laude from the University of Southern California. While a law student, she served on the executive board of the University of Chicago Law Review.