ALERT Federal Court Strikes Down Biden Admin's Redefinition of Sex: 'Colossal Win for Women'
A federal district court in Kentucky ruled that the Biden administration unlawfully attempted to change the meaning of "sex" in Title IX to include "gender identity."
The ruling applies nationwide, and the U.S. Department of Education is no longer able to enforce its LGBTQ interpretation anywhere.
As CBN News has reported, the Biden administration announced last April it would redefine "sex" in Title IX to include "gender identity," requiring schools to ignore sex-based protections that acknowledged the biological differences between men and women, while at the same time upending the foundation of women's sports.
The non-profit legal group Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), along with conservative groups, women's groups, athletic associations, and school boards, successfully achieved five injunctions that halted enforcement of the rule change while challenges proceeded in court.
Meanwhile, ADF and the states of Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia, Indiana, and West Virginia sued in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky, which ruled that the Biden administration rule change exceeded authority and was "arbitrary and capricious agency action."
"When Title IX is viewed in its entirety, it is abundantly clear that discrimination on the basis of sex means discrimination on the basis of being a male or female," the court wrote in its opinion. "As this Court and others have explained, expanding the meaning of 'on the basis of sex' to include 'gender identity' turns Title IX on its head."
"Title IX," the court continued, allows "males and females to be separated based on the enduring physical differences between the sexes."
ADF CEO, President, and General Counsel Kristen Waggoner says the ruling provides "enormous relief for students across the country," including their clients.
The ADF represented a West Virginia high-school female athlete and Christian Educators Association International in the lawsuit alongside the state of Tennessee.
- The 15-year-old girl was forced to compete against a biologically male athlete on her middle school track-and-field team.
- The male displaced her several times, even taking away her spot to compete in a conference championship.
- The teen was also forced to share a locker with the male athlete and at times had to endure sexual comments directed toward her.
- The male athlete finished ahead of nearly 300 female competitors in three years of competition on the girls' team.
"This is a colossal win for women and girls across the country," said Waggoner. "The Biden administration's radical attempt to redefine sex not only tossed fairness, safety, and privacy for female students out the window, it also threatened free speech and parental rights. With this ruling, the federal court in Kentucky rejected the entire Biden rule and the administration's illegal actions."
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Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti praised the ruling on X writing, "The court's order is a resounding victory for the protection of girls' privacy in locker rooms and showers, and for the freedom to speak biologically- accurate pronouns."
Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares followed suit.
"I'm proud to have successfully defended Title IX from the federal government's power grab that threatened to upend half a century of landmark protections for women and punish States for following their own laws," he said in a statement.
Attorneys with the Independent Women's Law Center also helped bring a lawsuit against the Biden administration and are celebrating the court's decision.
Inez Stepman, senior policy and legal analyst at Independent Women, said, "Federal Courts have now unequivocally laid down the law: the Biden Administration's bureaucrats are not allowed to invent a new meaning for the word sex in Title IX. Both under Presidents Biden and, previously, Obama, Democrats have tried to slip gender ideology into Title IX's protections for women. This unpopular game has finally been smacked down decisively in this decision. Sex means sex, not gender identity."
Former collegiate swimmer and women's rights activist, Riley Gaines, also celebrated the decision writing on X, "Huge win for girls and women everywhere... commonsense is slowly returning."
Huge win for girls and women everywhere!!!
— Riley Gaines (@Riley_Gaines_) January 9, 2025
This morning, a federal court ruled in favor of reality. Biden's Title IX rewrite has been vacated nationwide.
Common sense is slowly returning. Thank you, @AGTennessee! pic.twitter.com/hD9GZu2CMC
Gaines along with 15 other athletes have taken the NCAA to court for the "pain and suffering, mental and emotional distress, suffering and anxiety, expense costs and other damages" because the athletic association reportedly violated Title IX when they allowed trans athlete Lia Thomas – formerly Will Thomas – to compete as a woman for the University of Pennsylvania.
"We will win that one too," she wrote on X.
