The Supreme Court upheld two lower court injunctions Aug. 16 blocking the Biden administration’s rewrite of Title IX antidiscrimination polices that would have allowed male public school students who identify as female to compete in girls’ sports and use their restrooms and locker rooms.

Tennessee and Louisiana had successfully filed two lawsuits against the federal Department of Education seeking injunctions to block the application of the law. The U.S. Courts of Appeals for the 5th and 6th Circuits had granted preliminary injunctions, blocking the new rules from going into effect.

The Supreme Court voted 5-4 to reject the Biden administration’s emergency request to enforce new Title IX provisions for transgender students. 

The sweeping rule took effect Aug. 1 and declared that Title IX’s ban on “sex” discrimination in schools covers discrimination based on gender identity, sexual orientation and “pregnancy or related conditions.” 

According to the majority opinion, “the burden is on the Government as 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 …,” continued the justices in the 12-page ruling.

The opinion also concluded that “the Courts of Appeals will render their decisions” in the litigation surrounding the federal rule change “with appropriate dispatch.”

The Supreme Court’s ruling halts the Biden-Harris administration’s rules in the states of Tennessee, Indiana, Ohio, West Virginia, Kentucky, Virginia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, and Idaho.

Tennessee, Louisiana, and others who joined the lawsuits argued that the administration’s Title IX rules unlawfully redefine sex discrimination and violate students’ and employees’ rights to bodily privacy and safety. They argued that a definition of harassment based on the creation of a “hostile environment” violates the First Amendment by requiring students and teachers to use preferred pronouns.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor authored a dissenting opinion, being joined by Justices Elena Kagan, Neil Gorsuch and Ketanji Brown Jackson, arguing that the lower court injunctions against the federal rule are “overbroad.”

Before the Supreme Court ruling, a number of states had refused to abide by the DOE’s gender ideology edict. Twenty-six attorneys general and multiple nonprofits, school boards and parents’ groups have also filed lawsuits opposing the Title IX policy change.

A ruling July 2 in Kansas by U.S. District Judge John Broomes blocked the Title IX revisions in more than 2,000 schools across 45 states where a student specifically has a parent who belongs to Moms for Liberty, a parental rights advocacy organization that signed onto the legal challenges.

U.S. District Judge Terry Doughty, who granted the preliminary injunction on June 13 in Louisiana, referred to the Biden administration’s unilateral Title IX changes as a “threat to democracy.”

“This case demonstrates the abuse of power by executive federal agencies in the rulemaking process,” Doughty said in his ruling. “The separation of powers and system of checks and balances exist in this country for a reason.”

Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), a prominent conservative Christian law firm, represents a West Virginia high school female athlete and Christian Educators Association International, which joined with Tennessee’s lawsuit. ADF also represents a Louisiana school board serving more than 20,000 students, which joined Louisiana’s lawsuit.

“The Biden-Harris administration’s radical redefinition of sex turns back the clock on equal opportunity for women, undermines fairness, and threatens student safety and privacy,” Jonathan Scruggs, ADF vice president of litigation strategy, said in a public statement on the ruling. “The Supreme Court rightly affirmed the 5th and 6th Circuit decisions to restrain the administration’s illegal efforts to rewrite Title IX while these critical lawsuits continue.”

“This administration is ignoring biological reality, science, and common sense,” Scruggs added. “Female athletes, students, and teachers across the country are right to stand against the administration’s adoption of extreme gender ideology, which would have devastating consequences for students, teachers, administrators, and families.”