The U.S. Supreme Court halted the Biden administration's rules Title IX antidiscrimination law on requiring gender identity and sexual orientation to take effect. The high court ruled 5-4 late Friday, denying an application for a partial stay to allow the Education Department rules to take effect. The court also upheld lower court rulings blocking enforcement of the new regulation. According to The Christian Post, the rules would have required schools receiving public funding to allow boys who identify as transgender to use girls' bathrooms, locker rooms, and athletics.
In a 12-page ruling, the majority opinion stated, "the burden is on the Government as an applicant to show, among other things, a likelihood of success on its severability argument and that the equities favor a stay."
"On this limited record and in its emergency applications, the Government has not provided this Court a sufficient basis to disturb the lower courts' interim conclusions that the three provisions found likely to be unlawful are intertwined with and affect other provisions of the rule," it added.
"Nor has the Government adequately identified which particular provisions, if any, are sufficiently independent of the enjoined definitional provision and thus might be able to remain in effect."
In conclusion, the opinion said that "the Courts of Appeals will render their decisions" in the litigation regarding the federal rule change "with appropriate dispatch."
Meanwhile a dissenting opinion authored by Justice Sonia Sotomayor argued that the lower court injunctions against the federal rule are "overbroad."
"To be sure, this litigation is still unfolding, and respondents might eventually show injuries from the other portions of the rule," wrote Sotomayor. "If so, those injuries might merit further relief."
"For now, on the briefing and record currently before us, I would stay the preliminary injunctions except as to the three provisions above, in keeping with the traditional principle of equitable remedies that 'relief afforded [to] the plaintiffs' must not 'be more burdensome than necessary to redress the complaining parties.'"
Earlier this year, the Department of Education under President Joe Biden announced new Title IX regulations, which were scheduled to take effect this month. Under the new regulations, sex discrimination was defined as including discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
In response to this definition of "sex," many states filed lawsuits against the Biden administration, which concerned imposing the trans ideology on public schools.
In a ruling last month, U.S. District Judge John Broomes, who former president Donald Trump appointed, temporarily blocked the administration from enforcing the new regulations.
"The Final Rule would, among other things, require schools to subordinate the fears, concerns, and privacy interests of biological women to the desires of transgender biological men to shower, dress, and share restroom facilities with their female peers," wrote Broomes.
"Moreover, to expand sex discrimination to encompass 'self-professed and potentially ever-changing gender identity is inconsistent with Title IX's sex-separation dictates.'"
Title IX, which was first implemented in 1972, was intended to restrict schools receiving public funding from discriminating against students based on their sex.
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Milton Quintanilla is a freelance writer and content creator. He is a contributing writer for CrosswalkHeadlines and the host of the For Your Soul Podcast, a podcast devoted to sound doctrine and biblical truth. He holds a Masters of Divinity from Alliance Theological Seminary.