FORT WORTH, Texas – Marking a final chapter in the Biden administration’s attempt to rewrite Title IX, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit Tuesday dismissed the appeal filed by activist groups that tried to revive the previous administration’s rewrite of Title IX. The 5th Circuit filed the order after a Texas school district and the U.S. Department of Education agreed to the dismissal.
In April 2024, the Biden administration announced it would redefine “sex” in Title IX rules to include “gender identity,” requiring schools across the country to allow men into women’s restrooms, locker rooms, overnight accommodations, and showers. In five separate lawsuits brought alongside 19 state attorneys general and various organizations, Alliance Defending Freedom attorneys quickly won five separate court orders blocking the illegal rewrite in parts of the country.
“The Biden administration tried to rewrite a 50-year-old statute to impose gender ideology on America’s schools. That overreach defied basic biology, trampled the separation of powers, and put students at risk—forcing girls to share intimate spaces with men and demanding that students, teachers, and families violate their consciences,” said ADF Senior Counsel Jonathan Scruggs, vice president of litigation strategy. “Carroll Independent School District, ADF’s courageous female clients, and state attorneys general were right to stand up for student safety and privacy. ADF is glad to help bury this unlawful rule for good, and we commend the attorneys general, our courageous clients, and allied organizations who fought tirelessly for the truth.”
Eventually, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected the Biden administration’s effort to reinstate the rule in State of Louisiana v. U.S. Department of Education, and ADF obtained two separate court orders blocking the rewrite nationwide in State of Tennessee v. Cardona and Carroll Independent School District v. U.S. Department of Education. When activists tried to intervene to revive the Biden-era rule, ADF attorneys defended the court orders until the groups dismissed their appeals, first at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit last week in the Tennessee case and then at the 5th Circuit Tuesday in Carroll.
For the past two years, ADF attorneys have been involved in multiple lawsuits across the country filed to protect the original meaning of Title IX. ADF represented female students, teachers, women’s groups, and school boards who joined state attorneys general in successfully halting enforcement of the Biden-era rule change.
In Rapides Parish School Board v. U.S. Department of Education, ADF attorneys represent a Louisiana school board serving more than 20,000 students, which challenged the law along with the states of Louisiana, Mississippi, Idaho, and Montana. In Tennessee, ADF attorneys represent Adaleia Cross, a West Virginia high school athlete, and Christian Educators Association International alongside the states of Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia, Indiana, and West Virginia. In Carroll, ADF attorneys represent a Southlake, Texas, school district with a student body of approximately 8,400 that operates 11 schools for students from pre-K to 12th grade.
In State of Kansas v. U.S. Department of Education, ADF attorneys represent Female Athletes United, an organization made up of female athletes, and Katie Rowland, a 13-year-old student who had to stop using the restrooms at her Oklahoma public school for a time because males were accessing them, alongside the states of Alaska, Kansas, Utah, and Wyoming. And in State of Arkansas v. U.S. Department of Education, ADF attorneys represented Amelia Ford, a high school athlete from Arkansas, alongside the states of Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota.
With its five victories against the Biden administration’s Title IX rule, ADF continued its work to protect students, teachers, schools, parents, and women from the harms of gender ideology in schools.
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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