Texas judge extends injunction to Dept. Trans student protections in the Department of Education
Texas Judge Reed O’Connor has issued an expansion of an injunction he enacted last June that will further restrict the Department of Education’s trans-inclusive Title IX rules in the state of Texas.
In his expansion, O’Connor — an appointee of President George W. Bush ‘– wrote, “The Court also declares unlawful the interpretation in the Guidance Documents as well as in any future agency action that the anti-discrimination provisions of Title IX include sexual orientation or gender identity.”
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Bush judge blocks Joe Biden’s protections for trans kids in schools
The injunction is nationwide. Stay connected with your community.
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O’Connor’s new expansion is more sweeping. It completely restricts any interpretation by the DOE of Title IX as trans-inclusive, and instructs “schools, school boards, and other public, educationally based institutions,” to ignore the DOE’s 2021 directives.
“To allow Defendants’
unlawful action to stand would be to functionally rewrite Title IX in a way that shockingly transforms American education and usurps a major question from Congress,” O’Connor wrote in his August 5 opinion detailing his rationale. He wrote that “that is not how our democracy functions” and that “the Department does not have the authority to redefine sexuality in a manner that conflicts with Title IX.” This ruling does not cover the Title IX regulations issued by the Biden Administration earlier this year. Republican Attorneys General have also sued the DOE over its attempts to enforce these regulations.
