Drummond touts victory in court decision blocking Biden Administration’s attack on Title IX

OKLAHOMA CITY (June 18, 2024) – Attorney General Gentner Drummond praised a recent ruling by the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals that ensures Oklahoma schools and universities will continue to separate bathrooms, locker rooms and sports based on sex assigned at birth.

Oklahoma was one of 20 states seeking a preliminary injunction against the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) guidance documents, released in 2021, that redefine Title IX to encompass sexual orientation and gender identity.

The Sixth Circuit’s June 14 decision agreed with the states and the district court that the DOE likely violated the Administrative Procedures Act by issuing this guidance without adhering to the required notice-and-comment rules. 

“I am thankful that the Biden Administration will not be allowed to completely rewrite Title IX with its misplaced gender policy,” Drummond said. “Oklahoma schools and universities should not be penalized for following state law that protects female students on the athletic field, as well as in bathrooms and locker rooms. The Court’s decision is a victory for state sovereignty and all who believe young women deserve safe spaces at school.”

In a separate lawsuit that Drummond filed against the DOE earlier this year, the Attorney General argued that the agency’s proposed Title IX final rule is unfair to female athletes. That filing criticized the Biden Administration for its unlawful attempt to transform Title IX. 

“In doing so, it attempts to rewrite Title IX, it ignores the literal text of the statute and the purpose behind its creation, it disregards the lack of public support for the proposed rule, and it jeopardizes the equal opportunity that has been afforded to female athletes ever since the establishment of the statute,” reads that May filing. 

“The Department attempts to make these drastic and detrimental changes while relying on a Supreme Court case that has no connection to Title IX. Perhaps worst of all, implementation of the Final Rule would serve to isolate and deny the group of athletes that the statute was originally designed to promote and protect — female athletes.”

That lawsuit details how the radical rewriting of Title IX harms female students.

“Students of both sexes will experience violations of their bodily privacy by students of a different sex,” reads the lawsuit. “Indeed, the Final Rule also ignores psychological and safety concerns. For instance, a recent study points out that ‘limited research has explored girls’ experiences of competing on boys’ sports teams,’ noting unique challenges to female athletes. … Female athletes describe ‘having to navigate tensions and problematic assumptions of girls’ inferiority in sport.’ Meanwhile, research shows that female athletes are more willing to participate in single-sex athletics and less likely to feel self-conscious in single-sex athletics.”

Read the Sixth Circuit decision.