The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday rejected a request by the Justice Department to lift the Biden administration’s temporary restraining order on certain parts of the new revisions to Title IX.
Alabama is one of the states that has obtained a preliminary injunction against the new Title IX amendments that just went into effect. Federal Judge Myron Thompson originally denied a preliminary injunction in Alabama’s case, but the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals overturned that decision the next day.
The Supreme Court delivered its narrow 5-4 ruling on Friday, with conservative Justice Neil Gorsuch joining the dissenting opinion of the three liberal justices.
This decision relates only to the Department of Justice’s request to reinstate certain provisions of Title IX, which have no bearing on the harms that plaintiffs allege would be caused by the gender identity and sex discrimination provisions.
The majority opinion held that the gender identity and sex discrimination provisions “are interrelated with and affect other provisions of the rule” and that the Department of Justice “failed to provide this Court with a sufficient basis to challenge the findings of the lower courts.”
Liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote the dissenting opinion.
“By preventing the government from enforcing a variety of regulations that respondents never challenged and that had no discernible connection to respondents’ alleged harms, the lower courts exceeded their authority to remedy the harms alleged here,” Sotomayor wrote.
One such provision that will remain prohibited is the obligation for schools to provide accommodation for breastfeeding students.
The Department of Education said it was sticking with the new provisions of Title IX, which remained in effect in the 24 states that did not challenge the changes.
“While we disagree with this ruling, the Department stands by the final Title IX regulations that will be published in April 2024, and we will continue to defend those regulations in the expedited proceedings in the lower courts,” an agency spokesperson said in a statement.
The Alabama litigation will continue, and the Supreme Court may eventually intervene in the dispute again.
