Federal judge blocks Biden’s Title IX transgender protections

A federal judge in Texas halted President Biden’s proposed changes to the interpretation of Title IX on Tuesday, which reccomended protections for transgender students.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) sued the federal government after the guidance was first proposed.

District Judge Reed O’Connor ruled with Paxton, explaining that the federal government “engaged in unlawful agency action taken in excess of their authority, all while failing to adhere to the appropriate notice and comments requirements when doing so.”

The non-binding guidance is separate from a similar final rule guidance for Title IX in April.

Paxton and conservative groups commonly file suits in the Northern District of Texas, hoping to be assigned O’Connor, a nominee of former President George W. Bush. He was the judge who ruled in 2018 that the Affordable Care Act was unconstitutional and ruled in multiple cases that later became landmark Supreme Court decisions, including the 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges decision, which enshrined the right to gay marriage.