(Texas Scorecard) – Texas has secured another critical injunction against the Biden-Harris administration’s attempted redefinition of Title IX laws that would have put women’s private spaces and sports at risk.
Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office revealed in a Wednesday press release that the United States District Court in Northern Texas expanded an existing injunction against the redefinition in Texas on August 5.
The first injunction addressed specific language in the administration’s proposed changes to Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, a provision barring sex-based discrimination in education programs that receive federal funding.
The proposed changes, framed as a redefinition, were initially publicized in a June 2021 Notice of Interpretation.
Judge Reed O’Connor argued that the redefinition’s inclusion of “sexual orientation or gender identity” under anti-discrimination provisions unlawfully usurped Congress and vacated it from taking effect in Texas.
“Rather than promote the equal opportunity, dignity, and respect that Title IX demands for both biological sexes, Defendants’ Guidance Documents do the opposite in an effort to advance an agenda wholly divorced from the text, structure, and contemporary context of Title IX,” O’Connor wrote on June 11.
In response, the attorney general’s office asked O’Connor to clarify the ruling’s scope.
The new injunction blocks any future action in the state from the U.S. Department of Education that redefines Title IX to include “sexual orientation or gender identity” within the statute’s anti-discrimination provisions.
“This is a major win for protecting Texas and its students from any future attempt by the federal government to impose its unlawful interpretation of Title IX that puts women and girls at risk,” stated Paxton in the Wednesday release.
“The Biden Administration has waged war on women’s rights by subverting the Title IX protections they are entitled to in school and in sports,” he continued. “I am proud to deliver this victory and will continue to ensure that Texas schools remain safe from Biden’s unlawful policies.”
Even with the ruling, Texas is still fighting against other workarounds by the Biden-Harris administration that would institute fundamental changes to Title IX.
The administration released a Final Rule for the Department of Education on April 29 as a second attempt to secure federal protections for “transgender” individuals under Title IX.
While the recent injunction by O’Connor specifically exempts the April rule from being enjoined as litigation continues nationwide, 26 states—including Texas—have secured temporary injunctions against it thus far.
A Department of Education spokesperson told the Kentucky Lantern that the department is reviewing the ruling after a federal judge in Eastern Kentucky blocked the rule’s enforcement in six states but stood by its Title IX changes.
The rule took effect on August 1 in states without a temporary injunction, except in schools attended by children of members of Moms for Liberty or Young America’s Foundation.