A U.S. District Judge has granted a preliminary injunction in favor of Texas and Montana, effectively blocking the federal government’s attempt to extend Title IX protections to include gender identity. This ruling comes amidst a series of court decisions that have temporarily halted changes to Title IX, which would broaden its coverage to offer support and services for transgender individuals that were not initially intended by the original statute.
The ruling was handed down by Judge Jeremy Kernodle who determined that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) does not have the authority to compel state healthcare providers to provide gender-affirming care under the threat of losing federal funding. This decision aligns with the wider judicial pushback against expanding Title IX rules to include provisions for gender identity.
In May 2024, HHS issued a press release on its Final Rule that expanded the definition of Title IX protections established in 1972 to cover “discrimination based on the basis of gender identity” and align with Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act (ACA. However, Judge Kernodle pointed out in his ruling that the original purpose of Title IX was to protect women from discrimination in public education.
The Epoch Times reported that Texas and Montana, states which exclude gender-affirming care procedures from their Medicaid programs and prohibit doctors from performing them on minors, sued HHS for mandating that they adhere to the revised rules. In response, HHS argued that the updated regulations were necessary to prevent “dehumanizing beliefs” surrounding medical treatments and conditions such as gender dysphoria.
Judge Kernodle, however, described the Final Rule as an “absurd” policy that would restrict healthcare entities from limiting certain medical services to one sex. Additionally, he noted that the rule could permit individuals who identify as female to access “female-exclusive facilities,” which has stirred controversy and debate.
The judge also mentioned that both Texas and Montana demonstrated that they would suffer extreme financial harm for violating the rule, as they receive billions in federal funding that would likely be withheld if they were found in violation of the Final Rule. In such a case, the loss of funding for Medicaid and CHIP programs could have devastating consequences for beneficiaries of these programs.
This ruling follows a similar decision made by a federal judge in the Kansas v. U.S. Department of Education case, where it was determined that the Department of Education could not enforce its expanded definition of sex to include gender identity and sexual orientation. In response to this new Title IX rules, Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders defied the rules in a May executive order, stating that “the government should celebrate, not erase, sex differences by providing proper protections for them.” The order also claimed that the Biden administration has rejected reality and chosen to appease their left-wing base over students’ safety and best interests.
