Federal judge in Texas blocks new Title IX rules on transgender issues

A federal judge in Texas on Tuesday stopped the Biden administration's new Title IX protections, which were expanded to protect transgender students, claiming the government failed to "adhere to the appropriate notice and comments requirements," when it announced the rules.

The new rule, which protects students from discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity, was unveiled in April, and was meant to take effect in August. But it has faced lawsuits by several GOP-led states, including Texas and Florida.

Texas's Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton first attempted to block the Title IX guidelines last year, after the rules were proposed,  according to The Hill.

District Judge Reed O'Connor ruled that the new guidelines violated federal law, because the administration cannot "impose conditions on a state’s educational institutions by purporting to interpret Title IX of the 1972 Educational Amendments." 

"The Court concludes that Defendants cannot regulate state educational institutions in this way without violating federal law," O'Connor wrote in a 112-page opinion. "Accordingly, the Court holds that Defendants engaged in unlawful agency action taken in excess of their authority, all while failing to adhere to the appropriate notice and comments requirements when doing so."

Paxton praised the ruling in a statement, claiming the ruling helped protect biological women, because the guidelines would have forced public schools to allow transgender women to use the same bathrooms and locker rooms as biological women. 

“Joe Biden’s unlawful effort to weaponize Title IX for his extremist agenda has been stopped in its tracks,” Paxton said in a statement. “Threatening to withhold education funding by forcing states to accept ‘transgender’ policies that put women in danger was plainly illegal. Texas has prevailed on behalf of the entire Nation.”

O'Connor has made other controversial rulings in the past, including one stating that the Affordable Care Act was unconstitutional in 2018. The judge was nominated to the federal bench by former President George W. Bush.

Misty Severi is an evening news reporter for Just the News. You can follow her on X for more coverage.