(June 14)  The Biden administration suffered a well-deserved defeat, albeit only an interim one, in its effort to make federal law favor transgender ideology ahead of the rights of biological women.

The Western District of Louisiana on June 13 served the causes of common sense, good law, and women’s health by issuing a preliminary injunction against Biden’s new regulations under Title IX, which bans discrimination in educational programs and activities on the basis of “sex.” Without any actual change in a federal statute, Biden’s Department of Education issued a rule claiming that “sex” includes “gender identity” but without even fully defining the latter term.

[kpolls]

As a result of the new rule, the Defense of Freedom Institute explains, “sex-separated intimate facilities, such as restrooms, showers, and locker rooms, and even athletics fields are now prohibited — a violent deviation from Title IX and years of agency interpretation and enforcement practice.”

 

DFI, representing the states of Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, and Idaho, had filed suit to block the new rule. The court’s injunction bars the rule from being implemented in those four states. Similar suits are sure to see at least interim success in other states, and the controversy is almost certain to wind its way to the Supreme Court before long.

The brief filed by DFI and the four states is strongly worded. Appropriately so. They write that the rule’s “consequences will be shocking and severe. Boys and girls will be forced to share bathrooms, locker rooms, and perhaps even lodging on overnight field trips with members of the opposite sex. Adding insult to injury, they will be forced to use ‘preferred pronouns’ or else face punishment, which raises distinct Free Speech and Free Exercise [of religion] problems.”

The rule also could be used to bolster the practice of schools hiding from parents the fact that their minor children are receiving “gender-affirming” counseling….. [The full column is here.]