On January 9, 2025, a federal district court in Kentucky, in the case of Tennessee v. Cardona, issued a ruling that makes the Biden administration’s 2024 Title IX regulations unenforceable nationwide. This decision has far-reaching implications, as it affects schools, colleges, and universities throughout the country.
Title IX is a federal civil rights law, passed in 1972, which protects people from discrimination based on sex in education programs or activities that receive Federal financial assistance. On August 1, 2024, the Biden Administration’s Title IX regulations, which made significant changes to the Trump Administration’s 2020 Title IX regulations, went into effect. Starting on that date, the Department of Education mandated that sex-based harassment and discrimination complaints be handled under new rules that, among other things, extended the reach of Title IX to protections for LBGTQ+ and transgender individuals. At the heart of these new rules was a redefinition of the term “sex” to include “gender identity.”
The new rules also changed the definition of hostile environment harassment to include conduct that is “offensive and severe or pervasive,” as opposed to “severe, pervasive, and offensive” (as set forth in the 2020 Title IX regulations).
Tennessee, along with Indiana, Kentucky, Virginia, West Virginia, and other plaintiffs, sued, asking for an injunction to block the new rules from going into effect. Additional plaintiffs, including several organizations, filed similar lawsuits. This litigation resulted in twenty-six states, and over four hundred K-12 schools and almost seven hundred institutions of higher education in other states, being enjoined from implementing the 2024 Title IX regulations.
Yesterdays’ ruling by the district court in Kentucky held that the Biden Administration’s 2024 Title IX regulations exceeded the Department of Education’s statutory authority, violated the United States Constitution, and were arbitrary and capricious.
In theory, the decision yesterday can be appealed. However, as the Trump administration will soon be taking office, it is widely expected that any appeal filed by the Biden Administration will be withdrawn.
New Title IX complaints initiated from August 1, 2024, through January 8, 2025, were supposed to have been handled under the new 2024 Title IX regulations. Schools, colleges, and universities can expect that some parties may try to argue that any findings made under the 2024 rules in the last five months and one week now can be subject to challenge.
Educational institutions likely will be expected to revert to handling Title IX matters under the 2020 regulations promulgated by the first Trump administration. Schools should look at their policies and procedures and consider what portions need to be amended to undo any changes recently made to comply with the 2024 Title IX regulations.
OMLO’s Education Practice will continue to monitor these Title IX developments carefully to help guide school and college districts navigate their way through these changing regulations.