Kansas judge issues injunction blocking new federal anti-discrimination rules in education

TOPEKA — A U.S. District Court judge issued a preliminary injunction directly applicable in Kansas and three other states that blocked Biden administration rules deepening anti-discrimination protections for LGBTQ+ students and broadening the definition of sexual harassment at college and schools.

Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach argued the case last month in Wichita on behalf of special-interest groups with members in Alaska, Utah, Wyoming and Kansas interested in derailing the U.S. Department of Education’s plan to implement in August policies amplifying Title IX civil rights protections. The court also asked plaintiffs Female Athletes United, Young America’s Foundation and Moms for Liberty to submit by July 15 a list of schools attended by students affiliated with those organizations who would be covered by the injunction.

Judge John Broomes, an appointee of former President Donald Trump, said in the order that plaintiffs were likely to win in court on constitutional claims the education department’s final rule was deficient.

“The court finds that plaintiffs are likely to prevail on their claims that the final rule is contrary to law and exceeds statutory authority,” Broomes said. “The final rule is an unconstitutional exercise of legislative power under the spending clause, the final rule violates the First Amendment and the final rule is arbitrary and capricious.”

Broomes’ order followed previous federal court decisions that likewise found merit to constitutional claims in opposition to the Biden administration rulemaking.

Kobach, who has made a habit of filing lawsuits against President Joe Biden, said Wednesday the Democratic administration sought to improperly rewrite federal regulations as it applied to transgender students. The Kansas court decision was an important step toward ending Biden’s maneuver to violate the rights of students, he said.

“It protects girls and women across the country from having their privacy rights and safety violated in bathrooms and locker rooms and from having their freedom of speech violated if they say there are only two sexes,” Kobach said.

The attorney general said implementation of Biden’s rule would require public schools to allow transgender males who identified as female to compete on sports teams designated for girls or women and to use school locker rooms assigned to “biological” girls or women. However, the Biden administration said the rule change didn’t apply to sports participation. Kansas law also forbids a transgender girl or woman from playing on school or college teams with females.

“If President Biden had his way, a 16-year-old female high school student on an overnight field trip could be forced to share a hotel room with a male who identifies as a girl, or the district would risk losing federal funding,” Kobach said a statement issued by the Alliance Defending Freedom. “We’re pleased the court ruled to rein in the administration’s vast overreach. It’s unconscionable, it’s dangerous for girls and women, and it’s against federal law.”

Kobach highlighted text of Broomes’ order that raised the possibility an “industrious older teenage boy may simply claim to identify as a female to gain access to the girls’ showers, dressing rooms or locker rooms so that he can observe his female peers disrobe and shower.”

The federal judge also said it would be wrong for the education department to “require schools to subordinate the fears, concerns and privacy interests of biological women to the desires of transgender biological men to shower, dress and share restroom facilities with their female peers.”

Kobach warned the state’s public school district administrators that each should be aware they “must abide by the court’s injunction and that they are prohibited from changing any of the schools’ policies to reflect Biden’s Title IX transgender rule.”

The Southeastern Legal Foundation represents two of the advocacy groups tied to the lawsuit — Moms for Liberty and Young America’s Foundation. The Alliance Defending Freedom, which represents Female Athletes United, in the Kansas lawsuit. Among the plaintiffs was Katie Rowland, a 13-year-old student in Oklahoma who stopped using restrooms in the school for a period of time because certain males were granted access.

“The court was right to halt the administration’s illegal efforts to rewrite Title IX while this critical lawsuit continues,” said Rachel Rouleau, legal counsel to Alliance Defending Freedom.

Kansas Reflector is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Kansas Reflector maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Sherman Smith for questions: info@kansasreflector.com. Follow Kansas Reflector on Facebook and X.