States, students, parents to 10th Circuit: Ensure Title IX protects women, girls

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.

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