WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court On Friday, new regulations on sex discrimination in education were suspended in about half the country, denying a request from the Biden administration.
The court voted 5-4, with conservative Justice Neil Gorsuch joining the three liberal justices in dissent.
At issue was the protection of pregnant students and students who are parents, and the procedures schools must follow when responding to complaints of sexual misconduct.
The most notable new regulation, regarding protections for transgender students, was not part of the administration’s request to the Supreme Court. That regulation also remains blocked in 25 states and hundreds of individual colleges and schools across the country by lower court injunctions.
The lawsuits continue in those courts.
The rules also went into effect at other U.S. schools and colleges on August 1.
The rights of transgender people — and particularly youth — have become a major political battleground in recent years as transgender visibility has increased. Most Republican-controlled states have banned gender-affirming health care for transgender minors, and several have passed policies restricting which school bathrooms transgender people can use and banning trans girls from some sports.
In April, President Joe Biden’s administration attempted to resolve some of the disagreement with a regulation to protect the rights of LGBTQ+ students under Title IXthe 1972 law against sex discrimination in schools receiving federal funds. The rule was two years in the making and generated 240,000 responses, a record for the Ministry of Education.
The rule states that it is unlawful discrimination to treat transgender students differently from their classmates, including restricting their access to the restroom. It does not explicitly address sports participationa particularly controversial topic.
The enforcement of Title IX remains highly uncertain. In a series of statementsfederal courts have declared that the rule cannot be enforced in most Republican states that filed a lawsuit while the trial continues.
In an unsigned opinion, the Supreme Court majority wrote that it declined to question the lower court’s rulings, which concluded that “the new definition of sex discrimination is intertwined with and affects many other provisions of the new rule.”
Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote in her dissent that the lower court’s orders are overly broad because they “bar the government from enforcing the entire rule — including provisions that have no apparent connection to respondents’ alleged injuries.”
