Supreme Court denies stays of Title IX changes to protect LGBTQ students in 10 states

Aug. 17 (UPI) -- The Supreme Court refused to hear arguments regarding stays of federal Title IX changes made by the Biden-Harris administration to protect LGBTQ students that 10 states successfully challenged in federal courts.

The Supreme Court on Friday denied the Department of Education's request to stay federal court injunctions that stop enforcement of several provisions of recent Title IX changes in 10 states.

Those provisions include defining sex discrimination based on "sex stereotypes, sex characteristics, pregnancy or related conditions, sexual orientation and gender identity," the Supreme Court said in an unsigned denial Friday.

Ten states and other parties filed federal lawsuits in Louisiana and Kentucky to stop enforcement of the Title IX changes and secured preliminary injunctions, which the Department of Education seeks to have overturned by federal appellate courts.

The Education Department also wants to enforce the new changes to Title IX that aren't contested while the Fifth and Sixth Circuit Courts of Appeal hear the respective cases in October, but the appellate courts denied the requests.

The respective appellate court judges "concluded otherwise because the new definition of sex discrimination is intertwined with and affects many other provisions of the new rule," the Supreme Court said.

"The allegedly unlawful provisions are not readily severable from the remaining provisions," the court said in its denial.

"The lower courts also pointed out the difficulty that schools would face in determining how to apply the rule for a temporary period with some provisions in effect and some enjoined," the court said.

The denial letter said the Department of Education has the burden to show it has a likelihood of success in its legal argument and must show which provisions are independent of the new Title IX definition of sex discrimination, but has not.

"The court expects that the courts of appeals will render their decisions with appropriate dispatch," the unsigned Supreme Court said while denying the Education Department's requests for partial stays.

Title IX refers to the 1972 Education Amendments that ban discrimination based on sex in education programs and activities that accept federal funding.