Federal Judge Strikes Down Biden's Broadened Title IX Rules, Reshaping Gender Identity Protections

A federal judge in Kentucky has nullified the Biden administration's expansive 2024 Title IX regulations, a decision that significantly impacts protections for LGBTQ+ students and reverts the scope of sex discrimination in education. The ruling, issued in January 2025, found that the Education Department overstepped its authority by extending Title IX to include gender identity and sexual orientation, and violated First Amendment rights by potentially compelling speech regarding pronoun usage. This judicial action precedes the Trump administration's subsequent executive orders that further solidify a narrower interpretation of Title IX.

The decision has drawn attention to key White House policy figures, including May Mailman, Deputy Assistant to the President and Senior Policy Strategist. A New York Times profile of Mailman, described by John David Soriano on social media as "intriguing," highlighted her role in shaping higher education policy. Soriano, in his tweet, offered a correction regarding Mailman's stance: > "Mailman fought not 'against Biden administration policies that had extended discrimination protections to transgender students' but rather against Biden policies that contracted such protections for girls and women." This clarifies Mailman's focus on policies she views as safeguarding the rights and opportunities of biological females.

The Biden administration's 2024 Title IX rules aimed to clarify that discrimination based on gender identity and sexual orientation was prohibited under the 1972 law, which bans sex-based discrimination in federally funded educational programs. These rules also broadened the definition of harassment and sought to provide new safeguards for pregnant students. Civil rights advocates largely praised these changes as crucial for LGBTQ+ students, while conservatives criticized them as overreaching and undermining protections for biological women.

The Kentucky federal judge's ruling asserted that the Education Department's interpretation "eviscerates the statute and renders it largely meaningless" by expanding the definition of sex beyond its original intent. This judgment aligns with the Trump administration's subsequent actions. In January 2025, President Trump signed an executive order, "Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government," effectively nullifying Biden's executive orders that had expanded gender identity definitions.

Further solidifying this stance, a February 2025 executive order by President Trump explicitly interpreted Title IX as prohibiting transgender women from participating in women's sports. This series of actions by the judiciary and the executive branch underscores a significant shift in federal policy regarding gender identity and sex-based protections in educational settings, prioritizing biological sex in the interpretation of Title IX.