By Daniel Wiessner
(Reuters) – A federal judge in Kentucky on Thursday struck down a Biden administration rule barring discrimination by schools and colleges against transgender students, saying it clashes with the federal law banning sex bias in education.
U.S. District Judge Danny Reeves in Lexington agreed with six Republican-led states that while the law, Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, permits sex-specific bathrooms, dorms and other facilities, the U.S. Department of Education rule improperly bans any distinctions based on sex.
Title IX prohibits discrimination “on the basis of sex” in federally-funded educational programs.
“Expanding the meaning of ‘on the basis of sex’ to include ‘gender identity’ turns Title IX on its head,” wrote Reeves, an appointee of Republican former President George W. Bush.
Critics of the rule have said it would require schools to allow transgender students who were born male to use women’s restrooms and locker rooms at schools.
Reeves also said the rule would violate the free speech rights and religious freedom of educators under the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment by requiring them to use pronouns consistent with a student’s gender identity rather than biological sex.
The Education Department and the U.S. Department of Justice did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The judge in June had temporarily blocked the rule from being enforced against the states, which are led by Tennessee.
Several other judges temporarily blocked the rule in 20 other states, and the U.S. Supreme Court in August declined to allow parts of the rule to take effect in 10 states pending appeals.
Thursday’s decision is the first to permanently strike down the rule, which the administration of Republican President-elect Donald Trump is expected to repeal.
Legal protections for transgender people were a major issue during the U.S. presidential campaign last year.
Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti, a Republican, in a statement called Thursday’s decision “a huge win … for women and girls across America.”
“The court’s ruling is yet another repudiation of the Biden administration’s relentless push to impose a radical gender ideology through unconstitutional and illegal rulemaking,” Skrmetti said.
(Reporting by Daniel Wiessner in Albany, New York, Editing by Alexia Garamfalvi and Deepa Babington)
