Skip to main content

State of Kansas v. U.S. Department of Education

Description: The state of Kansas, along with three other states, and private groups of parents, students, and female athletes, are challenging the Biden administration for attempting to rewrite Title IX to include "gender identity" in the federal definition of "sex." 


Thursday, Oct 10, 2024

DENVER – Joining Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach and others, Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys representing students and female athletes filed a brief Wednesday with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit challenging the Biden-Harris administration’s continued illegal effort to redefine “sex” in Title IX to include “gender identity.”

In the case State of Kansas v. U.S. Department of Education, the attorneys general from Kansas, Alaska, Utah, and Wyoming, ADF attorneys, and Southeastern Legal Foundation on behalf of Moms for Liberty and Young America’s Foundation, filed a lawsuit in May to challenge the new rule.

“The Biden-Harris administration is attempting to rewrite Title IX through regulation,” said Kobach. “They seek to force young girls to share hotel rooms with boys who identify as females on overnight field trips and to change in front of men in locker rooms, threatening loss of federal funding if school districts put children’s best interests first. These actions are unlawful and unconstitutional, which is why the district court blocked the administration’s efforts. We are now asking the 10th Circuit to affirm the district court’s decision, protect Title IX, and ensure young women and girls continue to enjoy fairness and privacy in education.”

“The Biden-Harris administration’s radical redefinition of sex won’t just rewire our educational system. It means girls will be forced to undress in locker rooms and share hotel rooms with boys on overnight school trips, teachers and students will have to refrain from speaking truthfully about biological sex, and girls will lose their right to fair competition in sports,” said ADF Senior Counsel and Vice President of Litigation Strategy and Center for Conscience Initiatives Jonathan Scruggs. “The Biden-Harris administration has no authority to redefine what Congress wrote over 50 years ago. The district court correctly halted the administration’s illegal efforts to rewrite Title IX while this critical lawsuit continues, and we are urging the 10th Circuit to maintain safety, fairness, and common sense in schools.”

The injunction in this case covers not only the states of Kansas, Alaska, Utah, and Wyoming but also every school across the country attended by the members of Female Athletes United, the members of Young America’s Foundation, plaintiff Katie Rowland, and the minor children of the members of Moms for Liberty. The states and ADF argue in their brief that this injunction must remain in place protecting parents and students across the country.

“The district court stayed and preliminarily enjoined the [Title IX] Rule under the Administrative Procedure Act because it violates the Constitution in multiple respects, is contrary to Title IX, and is arbitrary and capricious,” the brief states. “Courts across the country have reached the same conclusion. And the Supreme Court affirmed a substantially identical ruling in a similar challenge.”

In the case, ADF attorneys represent Female Athletes United, an organization made up of female athletes and other individuals who are devoted to protecting women’s sports, and Rowland, a 13-year-old girl who had to stop using the restrooms at her Oklahoma public school for a time because of males accessing this private space.

When Rowland was just 11 years old, she entered her middle school’s girls’ restroom and was surprised to find a boy in the restroom. Scared and confused, she asked the male student why he was in the girls’ restroom. This situation made Rowland feel so uncomfortable that she progressively went from checking to see if there were any boys in the girls’ restroom to avoiding using the restroom altogether on school days—waiting nearly nine hours from getting on the bus to returning home.

Two other advocacy groups, Moms for Liberty and Young America’s Foundation, also joined the lawsuit, represented by Southeastern Legal Foundation. Together, they formed a broad coalition challenging the administration’s attempt to redefine “sex” in federal law to include “gender identity,” and to protect the privacy, safety, free speech, and fairness for students and teachers.

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.

# # #



Commentary


Previous News Releases

Legal Documents


Related Resources

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 Alliance Defending Freedom, where she is a member of the Center for Conscience Initiatives. Rouleau joined the Conscience Team in 2020, where she focuses on protecting the conscience rights of individuals being unjustly forced to compromise their beliefs under threat of heavy fines and punishment. Prior to that, she was a First Year Lawyer Fellow in ADF’s new fellowship program. 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 Massachusetts bar.