TBA Law Blog


Posted by: Azya Thornton on Jul 31, 2024

U.S. District Judge Annemarie Axon in Alabama upheld new anti-discrimination protections for LGBTQ students, rejecting arguments from Alabama, Florida, Georgia and South Carolina that regulations from President Joe Biden’s administration overstep legal boundaries. Axon ruled that these regulations, which extend Title IX protections to include gender identity and sexual orientation, were reasonable and aligned with the Bostock v. Clayton County Supreme Court decision. The ruling allows the rules to take effect in the four states on Aug. 1. Reuters reports that a total of 26 Republican-led states have sued over the rules. Six judges have blocked the rules from being enforced in 21 states pending the outcome of underlying lawsuits. Tennessee sued over the regulations in April. That led to an injunction on implementation of the rule, which recently was upheld by a three-judge panel of the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals. The administration last week asked the U.S. Supreme Court to set aside lower court decisions.