The tide is turning in America. And the Left is powerless to stop it.
And now a federal court smacked Democrats with a reality check they never saw coming.
A federal district court delivered a major blow to the outgoing Biden administration’s pro-LGBTQ rewrite of Title IX on Thursday morning, striking it down nationwide. Critics had long argued the changes undermined women’s and girls’ sports.
The U.S. District Court for the Eastern Division of Kentucky issued the decision in *Tennessee v. Cardona*, declaring the administration’s “Final Rule and its corresponding regulations exceed the Department’s authority under Title IX.”
The court also found the rewrite unconstitutional, calling it “the result of arbitrary and capricious agency action.” The ruling slammed the administration’s attempt to redefine Title IX protections by “expanding the meaning of ‘on the basis of s-x’ to include ‘gender identity,’” saying it “turns Title IX on its head.”
Title IX, a 1972 civil rights law, prohibits discrimination in education based on s-x, including in sports.
The Biden administration’s rewrite attempted to include “gender” and “s-xual orientation” under its protections, sparking widespread opposition from conservatives and women’s rights advocates. Critics warned the changes would force female athletes to compete against biologically male individuals identifying as transgender.
Republican Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti celebrated the decision on X (formerly Twitter), calling it a “massive win for TN and the country!”
“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,” Skrmetti said. Tennessee was one of the plaintiffs in the case.
Retired collegiate swimmer and prominent women’s sports advocate Riley Gaines also applauded the decision, calling it a “win for girls and women everywhere!!!” She added, “Common sense is slowly returning.”
The conservative Christian legal group Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), representing a West Virginia high school female athlete and Christian Educators Association International in the case, described the decision as a sweeping rejection of the Biden administration’s overreach.
“The ruling applies nationwide and to every part of the Biden Title IX rule, meaning the rule is completely invalidated, and the U.S. Department of Education is unable to enforce it—anywhere,” ADF stated in a press release.
ADF President Kristen Waggoner hailed the decision as a “colossal win for women and girls across the country.”
“With this ruling, the federal court in Kentucky rejected the entire Biden rule and the administration’s illegal actions,” Waggoner said. She highlighted the significance for students, including one of ADF’s clients, who faced harassment by a male student in both the locker room and on her sports team.
Waggoner further emphasized that the Supreme Court now has an opportunity to bolster these protections by addressing cases challenging West Virginia and Idaho laws that preserve women’s sports.
Republican Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares echoed the celebration, declaring, “All of America is now safe from Biden’s attempt to undermine half a century of landmark protections for women,” in a post on X.
Tiffany Justice, co-founder of Moms for Liberty, a leading parents’ rights group, praised the court’s defense of constitutional principles. “Parents win. Biden loses. Again,” she wrote on X. Justice added, “The US Constitution matters, and no federal law can compel the speech of pronouns in support of gender ideology nonsense in public school – K-12 or colleges.”
The Family Research Council also weighed in on X, expressing relief that “there will be no federal mandate to redefine s-x to include gender identity through Title IX.”
However, the FRC cautioned that the battle against gender ideology is far from over. “There is still much work to do to root gender ideology out of governments everywhere, at all levels,” the group said.
Stay tuned to Prudent Politics.
