Supreme Court Rejects Biden Administration on Trans Student Rule

A divided US Supreme Court refused for now to bolster the Biden administration’s ability to extend school discrimination protections to transgender students nationwide.

The justices left in force two lower court orders that are temporarily blocking a new Education Department rule in 10 states. The regulation took effect Aug. 1 in some parts of the country.

Four justices — liberals Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson and conservative Neil Gorsuch, issued a partial dissent, saying they would have let the Education Department enforce parts of the rule in the 10 states.

The high court action comes as part of a multifaceted legal fight around the US over the rule. Critics have focused on a provision that would let students use bathrooms and locker rooms that align with their gender identities, along with a second change that states say would open teachers to punishment for not using students’ preferred pronouns.

But the administration didn’t argue for those controversial changes at the Supreme Court. Instead, US Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar had asked the court to allow the rule’s other provisions to be enforced while the legal fight with the states goes forward.

In court papers, Prelogar said federal trial judges in Kentucky and Louisiana issued “grossly overbroad” orders blocking the entire rule.

Among the provisions the administration asked the Supreme Court to reinstate was one that says gender identity is protected under the federal law that bars discrimination in public schools. The rule is also designed to strengthen protections for pregnant and postpartum students.

The states challenging the rule argued that its provisions are interconnected. They contended that letting even some provisions take effect would impose burdensome compliance costs and create confusion just as a new school year is set to begin.

Four states led by Louisiana argued that they would have to “expend unrecoverable time and resources” to understand their obligations, revise their policies and train employees.

The states involved in the lawsuits are Tennessee, Kentucky, Indiana, Ohio, Virginia, West Virginia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana and Idaho. In both cases before the Supreme Court, federal appeals courts refused to limit orders by federal trial judges blocking the Education Department rule.

All told, about 20 states have sued to challenge the rule, with other cases still at the lower court level. The rule, including the bathroom provision, is in full effect in other parts of the country.

The cases are Department of Education v. Louisiana, 24A78, and Cardona v. Tennessee, 24A79.

To contact the reporter on this story:
Greg Stohr in Washington at gstohr@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story:
Elizabeth Wasserman at ewasserman2@bloomberg.net

Greg Stohr, Steve Stroth

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