Conservative Activists Find New Way to Wield Civil Rights Law

For more than 50 years, the US civil rights law known as Title IX has been a bulwark against sex discrimination in education. Covering students from kindergarten through university, it’s been the basis for landmark cases involving campus rape, gender bias in standardized testing and unequal funding for women’s athletics.

Conservative activist Nicole Neily has been wielding Title IX in a different way. Backed early on by donors including billionaire investor John Paulson, Neily has been calling on the Department of Education to investigate school policies supporting transgender students, arguing they erode Title IX protections for women. Her group is ...