Supreme Court upholds states’ block on protections for trans students

Next Supreme Court term will confront challenges to anti-transgender laws

The Supreme Court temporarily upheld a ban on new Title IX rules that expanded protections to transgender students (Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

Twenty-six states will be permitted to maintain their block on the Biden administration’s new rules intended to protect transgender students from discrimination, the Supreme Court ruled on Friday.

In an emergency order, all nine justices upheld a ruling by lower courts in Louisiana and Kentucky that allowed the states to temporarily pause the new rules as legal proceedings on the matter continue.

The new rules, which were unveiled by the Biden administration in 2021, redefined “sex discrimination” in Title IX to include “sex stereotypes, sex characteristics, pregnancy or related conditions, sexual orientation, and gender identity.”

Demonstrators advocating for transgender rights and healthcare stand outside of the Ohio Statehouse, Jan. 24, 2024, in Columbus, Ohio (AP)

It is an extension of the landmark civil rights law that has banned discrimination in schools on the basis of sex for more than 50 years.

Justices said the states were entitled to temporary injunctive relief while litigation determines if the central provision of the new rules, re-defining sex discrimination, is constitutional.

“The new definition of sex discrimination is intertwined with and affects many other provisions of the new rule,” justices said, adding that it would be difficult for schools to implement the new rules by August 1.

In typical fashion, the per curiam order was unsigned. But Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, Neil Gorsuch and Ketnaji Brown Jackson issued a dissent in part saying they would allow some parts of the new rules to go into effect.

The ruling is yet another blow to the Biden administration’s attempt to enact rules that protect transgender students from state laws that force them to use bathrooms or locker rooms, wear a uniform or play on sports teams consistent with their sex at birth.

Friday’s order is not the final ruling in the challenges.

The Supreme Court will likely return to the issue in the next term. Already, the court is looking at the constitutionality of a Tennesse law that bans gender-affirming medical treatment for minors.