Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has scored a legal victory against the Biden Administration's interpretation of Title IX with a federal district court judge ruling in favor of expanded protections for women in the state's education system. The additional injunction now permanently blocks the Department of Education (DOE) from enforcing guidelines that include “sexual orientation” or “gender identity” as anti-discrimination categories under Title IX in Texas, as reported on the Office of the Texas Attorney General's website.
This judicial decree builds upon a previous injunction from July 2024 and follows a lawsuit initiated by Paxton in June 2023 which challenged the DOE's guidance, which, according to Paxton, would have potentially allowed biological males to access women's restrooms, locker rooms, threatening to dismantle sex-specific facilities, and Texas schools refusing to adhere to these guidelines would have faced the loss of federal education funds. The recent ruling from June 2024 vacated the Biden Administration's extension of Title IX protections, with the judge articulating the administration's actions as an unlawful and shocking transformation of American education.
Attorney General Paxton responded to the expanded ruling with strong words, "This is a major win for protecting Texas and its students from any future attempt by the federal government to impose its unlawful interpretation of Title IX that puts women and girls at risk," Paxton elaborated, asserting that "The Biden Administration has waged war on women's rights by subverting the Title IX protections they are entitled to in school and in sports," further vowing to uphold the safety of the state's schools from these policies, as per his statement on the Texas Attorney General's news release.
