In a 5-4 vote, the Supreme Court has dealt a blow to the Biden-Harris Administration. The incumbent administration requested that SCOTUS partially lift two injunctions that barred the Education Department from enforcing most of its Title IX rule. The update to Title IX would have expanded the definition of sex discrimination and harassment to include sexual orientation and gender identity. With the vote, SCOTUS has struck down the Biden-Harris Title IX request.
News of the vote began to circulate in the evening.
Those who opposed the update argued that the request would allow biological men to compete in women's sports, but the Biden-Harris Administration countered by saying that it wouldn't be the case. The update took effect on August 1st, and it quickly led to more than two dozen Republican attorneys generals suing over the rule, arguing that it would conflict with some of their state laws that block transgender students from participating in women's sports.
In SCOTUS' ruling, they argued that the Biden-Harris Administration had "not provided this Court a sufficient basis to disturb the lower courts." Thus, SCOTUS found that the challenged gender identity and sex discrimination protections were "intertwined with and affect other provisions of the rule."
Texas Rep. Chip Roy (R) praised the decision, suggesting that the vote should've been "6-3". Conservative Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch was the lone conservative dissenter.
Good. Should be 6-3… https://t.co/dVBHeH69rZ
— Chip Roy (@chiproytx) August 16, 2024
The dissenters offered a nine-page opinion, and Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor argued in the opinion that there was no reason to block the whole policy because of the provisions that the lower courts found unlawful.
“By blocking the Government from enforcing scores of regulations that respondents never challenged and that bear no apparent relationship to respondents’ alleged injuries, the lower courts went beyond their authority to remedy the discrete harms alleged here,” she said. Justice Sotomayor also pointed out one provision the administration would not be able to implement nationally involves schools’ obligations to provide students with accommodations for breastfeeding.
The Education Department maintains that it still supports its rule.
A spokesperson for the Education Department said in a statement that “while we do not agree with this ruling, the Department stands by the final Title IX regulations released in April 2024, and we will continue to defend those rules in the expedited litigation in the lower courts."
