A Kentucky district court judge has blocked nationwide the Biden-Harris administration’s unconstitutional rewrite of a Title IX rule that would have allowed gender-confused males to compete in girls’ and women’s sports and invade their locker rooms and bathrooms. The rule, which attempted to infuse “gender identity” into the government’s definition of “sex,” had already been blocked in 26 states by various judges as well as the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals. The ruling keeps the more than 50-year status quo that sex discrimination in education is strictly based on whether a person is biologically male or female.

“…it is abundantly clear that discrimination on the basis of sex means discrimination on the basis of being a male or female,” wrote U.S. District Judge Danny Reeves. “As this Court and others have explained, expanding the meaning of ‘on the basis of sex’ to include ‘gender identity’ turns Title IX on its head.” Judge Reeves stated the “entire point” of Title IX is to prevent sex discrimination and inserting gender identity into the law “eviscerates the statute and renders it largely meaningless.”

Title IX reformed education in 1972 to provide equal opportunities for men and women and to prevent sex discrimination. Biden’s now defunct Title IX Final Rule would have given sex discrimination protections to those who “identify” as the opposite gender giving them access to women’s teams and private spaces while mandating the use of “preferred pronouns” in schools and colleges receiving federal dollars. The changes were meant to govern every K-12 school and higher education institution in the nation that accepts federal taxpayer funding.

In Tennessee v. Cardona, Judge Reeves had previously barred the Title IX update across six states in July 2024. Judge Reeves again sided with Tennessee and granted the state a final judgment that the rule is unlawful. In his decision, Judge Reeves noted every court that has weighed in on this Final Rule has also deemed it unlawful. He concurred that it was indeed so on “numerous fronts.”

Judge Reeves determined the rule violated the First Amendment because it would have chilled speech and compelled people to use “gender-identity-based pronouns” and affirm beliefs with which they disagreed. Secondly, he also stated the Department of Education exceeded its authority to expand the definition of sex, which is a role that solely belongs to Congress. And thirdly, Judge Reeves determined that expanding the definition of “sex” was “arbitrary and capricious” because the “starting point” and “ending point” of that definition is clear – “sex” means discrimination on the basis of being a male or female.

Judge Reeves concluded that these rewrites “fatally taint the entire rule.”

The Biden-Harris Administration announced it will no longer pursue efforts to rewrite the rule as the administration prepares to leave office.

Liberty Counsel Founder and Chairman Mat Staver said, “The defeat of this radical Title IX rewrite is a massive victory for women and girls. Title IX is once again a law that protects the privacy, safety, and fairness for women and girls in schools. The gender ideology experiment has no place in education and can now be purged from government rules.”