BOISE – A federal judge in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana has sided with Attorney General Raúl Labrador and the attorneys general from Louisiana, Montana, and Mississippi, issuing a preliminary injunction against the new Title IX rules pushed by President Biden’s Department of Education. The new rules misinterpret Title IX’s ban on sex discrimination and would now require schools to allow students access to bathrooms and locker rooms inconsistent with their sex. The new rules were scheduled to take effect August 1st.
This preliminary injunction applies to the states of Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, and Idaho and prevents the new rules from going into effect pending further review by the district court.
“I am grateful for this first-in-the-nation injunction on the Title IX rules, and that Idaho girls and women will be protected,” said Attorney General Labrador. “The new definition of discrimination that includes gender identity would have a profound impact on the advancements Title IX has made for girls and women in our society. With a single act, the Biden Administration threatened decades of progress and opportunities for females and jeopardized their rights to safety and access within our education system. This is a tremendous victory, and we are confident we will continue to prevail in court.”
Judge Terry Doughty issued the injunction Thursday, siding with plaintiff states, agreeing that the rules are unlawful. In his ruling, Judge Doughty confirmed that the plaintiffs are likely to succeed in showing the rules violate Title IX, the First Amendment, and the Spending Clause of the U.S. Constitution.
These illegal new rules would apply burdensome requirements on nearly every school, college, and university in Idaho and across the nation. This would have deprived women and girls of the equal educational opportunities they struggled for decades to secure, and cost states billions of dollars to implement. The new rules would also violate First Amendment rights for students and teachers and could prompt Idaho school districts to lose Title IX funding, and likely face numerous lawsuits.