America's Talking - Several States File Suit Challenging New Title IX Rules

Episode Date: May 4, 2024

Tennessee and West Virginia led a five-state lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Education challenging the federal overhaul of Title IX of the Educational Amendments Act. The lawsuit is one of several filed nationally on the topic after Biden’s administration rewrote the Title IX statute to expand the definition of “sex” to include “gender identity.” “The U.S. Department of Education has no authority to let boys into girls’ locker rooms,” Tennessee Attorney General Skrmetti said in a statement. “In the decades since its adoption, Title IX has been universally understood to protect the privacy and safety of women in private spaces like locker rooms and bathrooms. Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/america-in-focus/support Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hello and welcome to America in Focus powered by the Center Square. I'm Dan McAulb, Chief Content Officer at Franklin News Foundation, publisher of the Center Square Newswire Service. We are recording this on Friday, May 3rd. States across the U.S. filed lawsuits challenging the Biden administration's new Title IX rules to expand the definition of sex to include gender identity. Critics say the new rules essentially replace girls, replace girls and women's rights at schools with transgender rights.

An attorney general largely from red states argue the changes are unconstitutional. Joining me to discuss this is Casey Harper, Washington, D.C. Bureau Chief for the Center Square. Casey, why are states predominantly red states challenging the legality of these new Title IX rules? Yeah, I mean, there's a couple of reasons. One is they just disagree wholesale with the wave of policy changes. Policy changes that this change would enact. I mean, we can go through practical details and scenarios. and hypotheses about, you know, boys and girls' bathrooms and boys on girls' volleyball teams

and all that is very real. And it's going to be a huge change for all these schools. Many of them very conservative schools that don't, or conservative states that don't embrace these ideas at all, but it's being forced on them from the federal level. Another reason is being changed in the challenge, and this is a more legal argument is, hey, the argument is, hey, you can't go into a law and change what the words mean to get a different effect so that, you know, Congress, what Congress initially intended by that law is changed. I mean, we can't, you know, it's kind of interesting to think about what kind of precedent that sets.

If you change the definition of sex to mean gender identity, or why can't you go into any law and change what the words mean and rewrite the law, right? So it's really, you know, an interesting new, not totally new, but, largely uncharted legal territory where federal agencies where presidential administration tries to go into a pretty old law. This is not like a law passed a year or two ago. I mean, they were talking years and years ago law that was passed. And there's change what the words mean, so that the law has a totally different effect. I mean, that's a serious legal thing. I think that's something the courts are really going to have to rule on. Can you just change,

can you change words in a law to change the effect? I mean, so states are suing over this. It has huge implications. We don't even totally know it's how big of an implication is going to be. It's going to be litigated and fought at court battles all around the country. I don't see how more of these issues don't make it to the Supreme Court because when it comes to, you know, women's rights, girls' rights in schools, this is like World War III has been opened up on this issue. Yeah, among other things, the new rules would require schools that receive federal funding. to allow biological males, men and boys, who identify as female, to use female-only facilities,

such as bathrooms, locker rooms, things like that. That's one of the things that's most objectionable to the states that have filed suit, challenging the new rules. Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida has come out flatly and said, regardless of what the courts say, we're not abiding by this new rule. So it is definitely setting up a major showdown between states and the federal government. You referenced the courts, Casey. This is likely going to be another challenge to Biden's rules that's going to end up all the way to the Supreme Court.

But the U.S. Supreme Court's current term is winding down. So it does, unless they grant special access, this could be months long or even year long in the making. Yeah, I don't think that, yeah, I think this is going to play out over. I don't think we're going to have any emergency rulings that settle this issue. It's going to be playing out for months and impossible years, hopefully not years. I think schools and states need clarity on this issue. And Dan, the bathroom issue gets focused on a lot, but it really is more than that because we don't even know. People haven't even invented yet the different applications this can have because the law is so new.

The change is so new. I mean, there's something else to think about is what about a scholarship program that's meant specifically for girls? What is a girl under this new law? I don't see how that really holds up anymore because all the protections that were set aside specifically for women so that they could have their own spaces for sports, their own spaces for locker rooms and different things to protect them. All those protections are now extended to transgender students. And when it comes to who wins out between a female student and a transgender student, the transgender student always wins right now. Right. So when transgender or when female athletes stand up and protest a boy wanting to be on their team, you know, the female athletes are the ones who are kicked off the team

banned from playing. Right. So a law that was initially passed mostly to help women and young women have spaces and legal protections and equal locker rooms and those kind of things, that very law that was passed to extend the rights of young women is now being used against them to protect transgender women, which are really, you know, young boys, confused boys in these settings. And so it's a sad kind of irony that that that has played out that way. But it's not just in the education system. I wrote a story at the cinder square.com about how health and human services is adopting the same thing. So this is becoming a government-wide idea. And it's going to force doctors to treat, you know, redefine their definition of sex, which, I mean, if you think it has implications to think

differently about sex in school, think about the implications it has when you're talking about medicine, right? And so doctors around the country could face losing their license, certainly a whole slew of lawsuits as their challenge to redefine sex to fit some of the most progressive gender ideology. Casey, this new rule goes into effect this summer. and so when schools come back, this school year is winding down, when schools come back, whether it be late August or early September, and that's when the real impact will be seen. And of course, that's just a couple of months ahead of the November elections where there's already so many issues that are dividing voters. Do you see this having any impact on the presidential election?

I think it's largely up to Trump if he wants to webbe. this issue. I think it definitely could. The school year will start before the November election. I think the new cycle moves so quickly now, it's hard to know. I mean, inflation seems elevated again. It's very possible that wars overseas get worse. We have the pro-Hamas outbreaks all over college campuses in the U.S. Is that going to continue? Those are all very bad issues for Biden. Immigration. Yeah, the border crisis is out of control. It doesn't seem like it's going to get better. And now your daughter in school has basically no rights anymore under the newest reading of Title IX by the Biden administration. So yeah, I mean,

Trump's going to have to pick what he wants to focus on. But I think all these are tough issues that push independence away from Biden come November. Casey, thank you for joining us today. Listeners can keep up with this story and more at thecenter square.com. Do you care about classroom curriculum, transparency, policies and how your taxpayer dollars are invested in education, but you find it hard to cut through the partisan noise. Chalkboard News is bringing you straight news reporting on public K-12 education. We're talking news without spin.

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