Amidst Legal Challenges, Title IX Implementation to Begin Next Week

Despite multiple court orders preventing implementation of the Title IX rules in 21 states and at hundreds of institutions, the Department of Education has indicated that the new regulations will go into effect on August 1 as planned in jurisdictions and at institutions that are not affected by the current injunctions.

The Department’s intentions became clear when it issued two new resources to help educational institutions prepare to implement the regulations next week. These resources include a list of pointers for implementation and a video highlighting previously released guidance on how to draft policies, notices, and grievance procedures that comply with the regulations.

While the Department moves ahead with implementation, the legal skirmishes over the fate of the new regulations continue to complicate these efforts. With another injunction issued this week, the agency is prohibited from enforcing the regulations in the following 21 states: Alaska, Arkansas, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wyoming.

Meanwhile, one of the injunctions currently in effect has also paused Title IX implementation at any college or university attended by the members of several conservative organizations that had joined one of the state lawsuits. Despite entreaties by the Biden Administration, the judge declined to limit the injunction’s applicability to schools that had members at the time of the ruling. As a result, the list of colleges and universities affected by the injunction will increase as new students join the organizations that were parties to the lawsuit. Therefore, the Department has indicated that the list will be updated periodically.

Separately, the Biden Administration has asked the Supreme Court to limit the scope of several of the Title IX injunctions currently in effect. One notable feature of these injunctions is that they have applied to the entire set of regulations, rather than just the provisions that were challenged. Since the challenged provisions primarily consist of new requirements expanding the definition of sex discrimination to encompass sexual orientation and gender identity discrimination, the Biden Administration is seeking a court order to limit the injunctions to just those provisions, a move that would allow all other aspects of the regulations to go into effect.