BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WIAT) — A federal judge in Alabama has declined four states' lawsuit to block a new rule for Title IX offering new protections for LGBTQ+ students.
The rule, which is set to go into effect Thursday, would add gender identity among the protections from discrimination for students in public schools and universities. In the spring, Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall joined states like Florida, Georgia and South Carolina to block the enforcement of the rule.
“Since taking office, Joe Biden has brazenly attempted to use federal funding to force radical gender ideology onto states that reject it at the ballot box,” Marshall said in a statement. “Now our schoolchildren are the target. The threat is that if Alabama’s public schools and universities do not conform, then the federal government will take away our funding. Rest assured, Biden will not be successful.”
At the time, Marshall and Alabama Secretary of State Eric Mackey said no public school district should take any actions to implement the new rule.
In her 122-page opinion issued Tuesday, Judge Annemarie Carney Axon of the U.S. District Court of North Alabama, ruled that Alabama and the other states did not adequately argue their case against the new rule.
“In short, although Plaintiffs may dislike the Department’s rules, they have failed to show a substantial likelihood of success in proving the Department’s rulemaking was unreasonable or not reasonably explained,” Axon wrote.
Marshall released the following statement after Axon's ruling:
"We are surprised by the district court's decision today to deny the State's request to immediately halt Biden's Title IX degradation. Fortunately, precedent is on our side. The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals has been perfectly clear that when Congress used the word 'sex' to ensure equality for women under Title IX, it meant 'sex,' not gender identity, and that Title IX emphatically does not require schools to open up women's bathrooms, locker rooms, and showers to men. As such, we have already appealed this decision and will seek emergency relief. Alabama's women deserve better."
Although the rule is set to go in effect nationwide Thursday, 22 other states have already temporarily blocked it from being implemented.