Days before a Biden rule against anti-LGBTQ+ bias takes effect, judges are narrowing its reach

TOPEKA, Kan. — New federal court rulings are narrowing the Biden administration's enforcement of a rule for protecting LGBTQ+ students from discrimination and allowing critics to limit it even further school by school.

A federal judge in Missouri blocked enforcement of the rule in six additional states, bringing the total to 21. The decision Wednesday from Senior U.S. District Judge Rodney Sipple, an appointee of President Bill Clinton, applies in Arkansas, Iowa, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota. It comes just a week before the rule is to take effect.

Sipple's ruling followed one last week by U.S. District Judge John Broomes in Kansas, who blocked enforcement in that state, Alaska, Utah and Wyoming but also in individual schools and colleges across the U.S. with students or parents who are members of three groups opposing the rule. Broomes, an appointee of President Donald Trump, gave one group, Moms for Liberty, an extra week — until Friday — to submit its list of affected schools and said it could include ones for members who joined the group after his initial July 2 order.

Republican officials seeking to roll back transgender rights hailed Sipple's ruling as a victory for cisgendered girls and women, having framed the issue as protecting their privacy and safety in bathrooms and locker rooms. They've also argued the rule is a ruse to allow transgender females to play on girls’ and women’s sports teams, but Sipple said it would not apply to athletics.

“Yet again a federal court has stopped the Biden-Harris administration from going around Congress to implement a ridiculous, nonsensical, and illegal election-year move,” Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffith said in a statement. “And it comes just in time before the start of the new school year.”

Moms for Liberty had told Broomes in a court filing earlier this month that its members have students in tens of thousands of schools across the U.S., many in Democratic-led states supporting the rule. Also, judges in Alabama and Oklahoma have yet to rule in lawsuits filed by those states and Florida, Georgia and South Carolina.

The three groups involved in the Kansas lawsuit already have submitted lists of about 1,100 schools and colleges in the U.S. affected by Broomes' order. An AP analysis shows that 69% are outside the 21 states where enforcement already is blocked.

The Department of Education did not immediately respond Thursday to an email seeking comment about the latest rulings, but it has stood by the rule, which takes effect Aug. 1. LGBTQ+ youth, their parents, health care providers and others say restrictions on transgender youth harm their mental health and make often-marginalized students even more vulnerable.

The Biden administration has asked federal appeals courts in Cincinnati, Denver and New Orleans to overturn judges’ orders. On Monday, it asked the U.S. Supreme Court to narrow orders applying in 10 states. It wants to enforce a provision declaring that bias against transgender students violates the 1972 Title IX civil rights law barring sex discrimination in education, without affecting bathroom access or use of students’ preferred pronouns.

The various federal judges' rulings block the rule at least through the trials of the states' lawsuits, but they have concluded the states are likely to show that the Department of Education exceeded the authority granted by Title IX. Sipple and Broomes also said the rule likely violates the free speech rights of staff, student and staff who don't recognize transgender students' gender identities.

“The Court also considers the fact that the regulations currently in effect have essentially ‘been unchanged for approximately 50 years. Therefore, it would be of relatively little harm to others to maintain the status quo,’” Sipple wrote in his decision, quoting Broomes' July 2 decision.

In the Kansas case, Moms for Liberty had asked Broomes to apply his July 2 order to any county where a group member lived — greatly expanding its reach, including across most major U.S. cities. Broomes declined, but he also rejected the Department of Education's argument that Moms for Liberty couldn't add to the list of affected schools through people who joined after July 2.

Moms for Liberty said it was encouraging people to join online — and modified its website — so the schools of new members' children can fall under Broomes' order.