Judge Blocks Biden Admin's Guidance on Anti-LGBTQ+ Discrimination
issued a notice last year that it would enforce the ban on sex discrimination in Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 to include discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity in any educational program or activity that receives federal funds.
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission put out a similar notice on discrimination in the workplace. These actions were in keeping with the Supreme Court’s 2020 ruling in Bostock v.
Clayton County that another federal law, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, in banning sex discrimination in employment, also bans discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.But a group of Republican attorneys general from 20 states, led by Tennessee, sued to challenge the guidance, and late Friday Judge Charles Atchley of the U.S.
District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee issued an order blocking it while the suit is heard, the Associated Press reports.The guidance “directly interferes with and threatens Plaintiff States’ ability to continue enforcing their state laws” that bar trans people from playing on the school sports teams or using the restrooms that match their gender identity, Atchley wrote.“As it currently stands, plaintiffs must choose between the threat of legal consequences — enforcement action, civil penalties, and the withholding of federal funding — or altering their state laws to ensure compliance with the guidance and avoid such adverse action,” continued Atchley, who was appointed to the judgeship by Donald Trump.
