OKLAHOMA CITY (July 31, 2024) -- Attorney General Gentner Drummond praised today’s ruling in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma blocking the Biden Administration’s new rule that attempts to change federal protections for students under Title IX.
Drummond filed a lawsuit in May seeking a preliminary injunction against the rule elevating gender identity over Title IX’s express protections of male and female students. U.S. District Judge Jodi W. Dishman granted Oklahoma’s preliminary injunction in full, preventing the new Title IX rule from taking effect throughout Oklahoma. Among other things, Judge Dishman held that Oklahoma was likely to succeed in showing that the Biden Administration’s final rule “exceeds statutory authority, violates the Constitution, and is arbitrary and capricious.”
“This well-reasoned ruling helps to protect both female and male students from invasions of privacy and unnecessary harm,” Drummond said. “Our students deserve the protections that have long been provided by Title IX.”
In her ruling, Judge Dishman found that the new rule is at odds with Title IX’s clear purpose.
“The Final Rule elevates gender identity and its accompanying protections above that of biological sex,” Judge Dishman wrote. “Such a contradiction of Title IX’s text and an erosion of its purpose cannot be permitted absent congressional action.”
Judge Dishman observed that the Final Rule was “inexplicably logically inconsistent with several provisions of Title IX.” For example, she pointed out, a biological male identifying as a female would be required to sleep in the boys' dorm but would be allowed to use the girls' locker room. “This approach undercuts Title IX’s purpose, epitomizes a clear error in judgment and entirely fails to consider important aspects of the problem the Department sought to resolve.”
Read the full ruling.
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