Donald Trump a "blank slate" to write policy on transgender rights with less than two weeks until he takes office.U.S. District Judge Danny C.
Reeves struck down the Biden administration's expansion of Title IX in a Thursday decision after finding that rules expanding protections for LGBTQ+ students overstepped the president's authority.Trump has already promised to end the rules "on day one" of his presidency, but legal analyst Chris Geidner said that instead of the new administration having to find legal pathways to undue the Biden policy, Trump will get a "blank slate" thanks to Reeves' decision to scrap the entire 1,500-page resolution.The Biden administration finalized the new Title IX rules last year, expanding the law to prevent discrimination based on gender identity or sexual orientation in education, as well as broaden the definition of harassment to include a wider range of misconduct.But those efforts drew fierce criticism from conservatives who said it could be used to protect transgender athletes in girls' sports.
As a result, the rule was halted in more than half of the country—26 states—after a wave of legal challenges led by Republican-led states.Thursday's decision came in response to a lawsuit filed by Tennessee, Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, Virginia and West Virginia.
Reeves sided with the states after finding that the new rules were "fatally" tainted by legal shortcomings. The judge said the 1972 law should not cover any more than what it was set out to protect since Congress created it, calling it an attempt to bypass the legislative process.He also found that it violated free speech rights by requiring teachers to use the chosen pronouns of a student because it would allow the government to chill the speech of an educator or force them to affirm a belief that they disagree with.Chris Geidner, legal journalist, wrote in a post on X, formerly Twitter: "Now, I know, you ask: 'Wouldn't Trump just have removed it?' Yes, but: It would have taken time,.