Supreme Court Blocks Biden Administration’s Bid to End Bathroom Bans

The Supreme Court has blocked the Biden administration’s new rules on gender discrimination in education to allow a battle over transgender teens’ rights to play out. The move stops a federal blockade on so-called “bathroom bans,” which prevent transgender students using facilities— including changing rooms and bathrooms—which align with their gender identity. The court ruled 5-4 to put the entire 1577-page rule on how to enforce Title IX—which bans discrimination by gender in education—on ice while lower courts consider the transgender rights measures. Justice Neil Gorsuch, a Trump appointee, split from the conservative block to unsuccessfully vote with liberals for the majority of the package of rules, which are unrelated to transgender issues in schools and colleges, to go into force. The split is an unusual example of Gorsuch joining liberal justices in dissenting from the conservative majority, which this time was led by Justice Brett Kavanaugh. The ruling came after Republican state attorneys general made emergency applications to block the new rules before the start of most school and colleges’ new terms, prompting the Biden administration to ask the high court to issue an emergency ruling allowing the Title IX . Blocking the Biden rules also means that reforms to how colleges deal with accusations of on-campus rape and sexual assaults are on hold indefinitely. The ruling also makes it likely that the rights of transgender teens to use their preferred pronouns at school without parents being notified and their access to gender-specific facilities will end up in front of the justices in another culture wars showdown.

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