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Weeks after a federal judge in Kansas became the latest to enjoin the administration of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris from eroding women’s rights via a bastardization of Title IX – a judge in Alabama has broken ranks and ruled in favor of the administration.
U.S. district court judge Annemarie Axon of Alabama’s northern district – who was appointed to her seat by former president Donald Trump – denied a bid by attorneys general of four southern states who sought a similar injunction against the Biden/ Harris administration for its Title IX overreach.
According to Axon, the attorneys general of Alabama, Florida, Georgia and South Carolina failed to establish a “substantial likelihood of success on the claims advanced in their complaint to obtain a preliminary injunction from this court.”
Specifically, Axon’s ruling (.pdf) concluded these four states failed to show how the Biden/Harris rule caused “irreparable injury” by creating a conflict with existing state laws.
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“The evidentiary record is sparse, and the legal arguments are conclusory and underdeveloped,” Axon added. “Although plaintiffs may dislike the department’s rules, they have failed to show a substantial likelihood of success in proving the department’s rule-making was unreasonable or not reasonably explained.”
Axon went further than that, actually – determining the new federal regulations did not “displace a parent’s right to act on their child’s behalf.”
Alabama attorney general Steve Marshall expressed shock at the ruling.
“We are surprised by the district court’s decision to deny the state’s request to immediately halt Biden’s Title IX degradation,” Marshall wrote on X. “Fortunately, precedent is on our side. The eleventh circuit court of appeals has been perfectly clear that when congress used the word ‘sex’ to ensure equality for women under Title IX, it mean ‘sex,’ not gender identity, and that Title IX emphatically does not require schools to open up women’s bathrooms, locker rooms and showers to men.”
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Rest assured, I have already appealed today’s Title IX decision. Alabama’s young women deserve better. pic.twitter.com/lYIBe7orRk
— Attorney General Steve Marshall (@AGSteveMarshall) July 30, 2024
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“Rest assured, I have already appealed,” Marshall added.
Axon is the first federal judge to allow the new law to proceed (five others have blocked it from taking effect in 21 different states). Her ruling was immediately appealed to the U.S. eleventh circuit. That means South Carolina schools not specifically named in connection with the Kansas case have no recourse but to abide by the Biden/Harris regulations – which take effect tomorrow (August 1, 2024).
Adopted in 1972, Title IX (.pdf) prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex at any academic institution or within any education program which receives federal funding. Biden and Harris’ administration has sought to redefine Title IX to include protections for men who identify as women – thereby initiating a wave of institutional discrimination against biological women.
This discrimination was brought to the fore two years ago when Lia Thomas of the University of Pennsylvania – a biological male – was awarded the NCAA women’s 500-yard freestyle national championship. Thomas had previously competed as a male, ranking No. 462 nationally. As a “woman,” she ranked No. 1.
My media outlet blasted the NCAA in no uncertain terms, encouraging women on the receiving end of such overt discrimination to stand up for their rights.
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RELATED | ‘INCLUSIVITY?‘
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“It is my sincere hope that the female athletes and institutions deprived of their rightful places on the podium by Thomas and other trans athletes will explore their options under Title IX,” I noted in my excoriation of the NCAA.
Recognizing the situation, Biden and Harris’ bureaucrats sought to rewrite the law – attempting to effectively outlaw dissent of the new orthodoxy. Under the guise of “reducing the occurrence of sex discrimination,” Biden and Harris’ Department of Education (DOE) promulgated regulations which eviscerated Title IX’s protections for women – and sought to impose compulsory “compliance” with the new woke orthodoxy.
Beyond the inherent unfairness of men competing in women’s sports, Biden and Harris’ bureaucrats sought to mandate the compulsory use of dressing rooms and restrooms by both sexes – as well as the mandatory acknowledgment of “preferred pronouns.”
Earlier this month, U.S. district court judge John W. Broomes was the latest federal judge to enjoin the administration from attempting “to expand sex to mean gender identity.”
“(The administration’s) reinterpretation of Title IX to place gender identity on equal footing with – or in some instances arguably stronger footing than – biological sex would subvert Congress’ goals of protecting biological women in education,” Broomes wrote. “The (new rule) would, among other things, 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.”
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Broomes further concluded the Biden/Harris rule “violates the First Amendment by chilling speech through vague and overbroad language.”
As we reported in a follow-up piece to Broomes’ ruling, S.C. attorney general Alan Wilson – one of the plaintiffs in the Alabama case – cited multiple high schools and colleges in the Palmetto State which were specifically exempted from compliance with Biden/Harris rule via the Kansas order.
But what about high schools and colleges not covered by that case? Especially in the aftermath of this week’s ruling out of Alabama?
In a statement provided to this media outlet earlier this month, one of the leading parental rights’ advocates in South Carolina – Carly Carter of Anderson, S.C. – cited a portion of Broomes’ ruling which applied the terms of that injunction to all of the plaintiff organizations.
Among those organizations? Moms for Liberty.
“Any child who has a parent who is a member of Moms for Liberty will be protected from these changes,” Carter said at the time.
Carter has encouraged parents in the Palmetto Upstate to join Moms for Liberty as a means of asserting their rights as parents.
Count on this media outlet to continue following this debate closely as the battle to protect women’s rights rages on. And remember, our open microphone is always on – and always available – to anyone who has an intelligent take on this issue (or any issue we cover).
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THE RULING…
(U.S. District Court)
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR …
Will Folks is the owner and founding editor of FITSNews. Prior to founding his own news outlet, he served as press secretary to the governor of South Carolina, bass guitarist in an alternative rock band and bouncer at a Columbia, S.C. dive bar. He lives in the Midlands region of the state with his wife and eight children.
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